Alliance for Georgia Snubs Rally during VP Biden’s Visit

Alliance for Georgia said it would not take part in a rally which some opposition parties plan to hold when U.S. Vice President Joe Biden visits Georgia next week.

Mamuka Katsitadze of the New Rights Party, part of alliance for Georgia, told Maestro TV on July 17 that there were several reasons why the three-party alliance was against of holding the rally. One of them, he said, was that the authorities would try to portray it as “an anti-western, anti-U.S. protest.”

“The government-controlled televisions are already announcing that the opposition is planning to meet the U.S. Vice President with the protest rally,” he said.

Another reason, he continued, was that it would not be possible to assemble as many people as it was either on April 9, when the street protests were launched, or on May 26. He said although “the protest charge” still persisted in the society, holding of a large-scale rally would be impossible including because of summer was not the best period for such rallies. Katsitadze also alleged that the authorities could stage provocations at the rally in an attempt to discredit the opposition.

Salome Zourabichvili, leader of Georgia’s Way party, which is among strongest supporters of holding the rally, has already called on supporters to gather on Freedom Square on Wednesday evening. She and leaders from the Conservative Party – another supporter of the rally – said that the gathering should demonstrate to the visiting U.S. Vice President that the Georgian society is strongly in favor of democracy and western values and the rally should no way be perceived as anti-western. “’It’s time for change in Georgia’ should be the slogan of the rally,” Zourabichvili said on July 17. Levan Gachechiladze, an individual opposition politician has also called for the rally.

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