Press Digest 13.10.2014
The European Conservators want the former leadership to take up the reign of Georgia again -- Michael Aastrup Jensen
Will two Georgian Ministers be removed from their posts?
Mr. Narmania must not embarrass his own team – Sandro Tvaltchrelidze
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The European Conservators want the former leadership to take up the reign of Georgia again -- Michael Aastrup Jensen
"On October 1, the EU Parliamentary Council adopted a resolution regarding democratic Institutes of Georgia. The members of the leading party have not approved the resolution. As for the National Movement, they have shown an entirely different position by supporting the document. Even the rapporteurs of Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE), Boris Cilevics, and his co-rapporteur Michael Aastrup Jensen, have refused to approve the resolution. According to them, critical remarks against members of the leading party as well as their chosen political course, disrupts the balance of the resolution. In the words of Mr. Cilevits, similar resolutions cannot in any way help Georgia. Kviris Palitra has contacted Boris Cilevits’ co-rapporteur Michael Aastrup Jensen to talk regarding the EU Council resolution with him,” reports the Kviris Palitra gazette.
“While preparing the report at the EU Council, I visited Georgia a key problem of which, in my opinion, is a political polarization. In Europe, including in my country, the majority and the minority are involved in cooperation, they discuss acute issues together, while in Georgia a gap between the left and right-wing parties is strongly palpable. The National Movement party and the Georgian Dream Coalition are polarized, and polarization clearly cannot be propitious for either of them… However, we have not hidden our dissatisfaction with their move to draft this resolution. I have held back from voting for the resolution, while Mr. Cilevits did not hesitate to vote against it,” announces Mr. Jensen.
“The Nationals Movement has contaminated the European Conservative parties with this terrible ailment of polarization, and this has finally resulted in their endeavor “to give a lesson” to me and my co-rapporteurs. I cannot give away the names of those people who wanted to “give us a good lesson” but I can boldly say that our cooperation is far from being prolific. Precisely this unproductive collaboration has resulted in drafting the resolution that is imbued with negative accents instead of positive. The Government’s decision to imprison the members of the National Movement has overshadowed all positive aspects in the country, and such kind of an approach is clearly inadmissible to me. Of course, we do share their position and strongly hold that selective justice is something unacceptable. However, the fact that no one can stand above the law, even a former President, is also incontrovertible,” maintains the EU Council co-repporteur.
“Have you breached the law? Then go and pay the price! Precisely this is happening today in France, where a case against the ex-President has been brought. This is nothing new for Europe. This happens everywhere, in every European country or region. And precisely this is democracy! Do you want to nurture democracy? Then never put anyone above the law! Here I also want to strongly underscore that we don’t really think that persecuting their political opponents was a key task of the Georgian Dream Government. Precisely for this reason, we refused to stand by the resolution drafters,” announces Michael Aastrup Jensen.
“We are trying to help Georgia, its Government and the Georgian people. We do support their aspiration to build a democratic country, and we do like their determination to envisage their future as a democratic nation. However, the document from the EU Council does not in any way help Georgia in achieving its explicit aim. If I were a member of Georgia’s Government, I would have undoubtedly defined this resolution as a “partisan” and unilateral document, a resolution which has been drafted by the National Movement. Obviously this is not a resolution from us, the repporteurs who frequent Georgia and are constantly kept posted regarding its developments… The European Conservators simply want the former leadership to take up the reign of Georgia again; they want to achieve this goal despite the fact that we, the repporteurs, have adopted an entirely neutral stance in this particular case,” concludes Michael Aastrup Jensen.
Will two Georgian Ministers be removed from their posts?
Reshufflings could occur within our Government again. As they say behind the scenes, at this time the teams of Giorgi Margvelashvili and Irakli Aasania will be subjected to restructuring. The Minister of Foreign Affairs and the Minister of Education have, allegedly, been the focus of the Prime Minister’s attention for months. We would like to remind you of the fact that PM Gharibashvili dismissed several Ministers a couple of months ago. As rumors circulated behind the scenes many more high officials might be fired in the future. The PM himself did not even try to hide that the bodies could be restructured in fall again,” reports the Rezonansi gazette.
“Irakli Gharibashvili has stated on Imedi TV that the next round of reshuffling may actually take place. “I have kept a close eye on all Ministers, and I have made some notes regarding them. Obviously, I have some remarks for them too. I don’t rule out that some of them will be dismissed; however, I want to grant them one more chance. They must grasp this opportunity and show their full potential. I have nothing planned at this point in time though; their future is totally in their hands,” announced the Head of our Government on July 23, in Tea Sitchinava’s program “It’s Time for Politics.” As we have heard through the grapevine, Foreign Minister Maia Panjikidze and Education Minister Tamar Sanikidze from Mr. Mrgvelashvili’s team will be cut off from the new team of Ministers,” says the article.
“I fall short of information regarding this issue but reshuffling within this or that body is the Prime Minister’s prerogative and it’s totally up to him to make decisions in this regard. According to law, if only one or two ministers are removed from their posts, the PM does not ask the Parliament to establish a new composition of the Government. In my opinion, in today’s Government, Mrs. Panjikidze is one of the most successful Ministers. She has really done a god job and has advanced her sphere,” maintains member of parliamentary majority, Zurab Abashidze.
“As for Ms. Sanikidze, we should all acknowledge that the sphere of education poses really pressing challenges to us. As education is one of our top priorities. Without an educated man, no powerful state can ever be built. A lot has been done in this direction; much remains to be done though. The Government has its head that is entitled to make decisions and to rebrand his team when the necessity for this emerges, and I see absolutely nothing tragic in this fact – no one is born as a minister,” declares the respondent.
Mr. Narmania must not embarrass his own team – Sandro Tvaltchrelidze
"What has recently happened in City Hall is a manifestation of outright greediness. As you know, Vice-Mayor, Alexandre Margishvili, has proven to be the most highly compensated high official whose salary with its employment benefit runs up to 7,080 GEL. By doing this, they have simply shown how unimaginably greedy they can be, and by doing this, Mr. Narmania has put his team in an immensely awkward position. He must realize this and put an end to this messy situation as soon as possible,” announces expert Sandro Tvaltchrelidze in his interview with the Kviris Palitra gazette.
“A state official must enjoy a high salary. Since Shevardnadze’s Government, I have bellowed across the country that a high-ranking official must have a high salary to focus on really paramount issues and not think regarding such a nonissue as how to sustain his family. In addition, high salaries do undermine corruption; thus, it’s better for us to give them high salaries than make them think that the state budget is their own treasury from which they can withdraw funds whenever they desire. We must not seek to reduce our official’s salaries; on the contrary, we must try to increase the salaries of those whose monthly payment is low. Evidently though, we will not able to do this, if we don’t advance our industry,” claims Sandro Tvaltchrelidze.
“Only those people who have not mastered any other language than Russian and who think that Russia is our only alternative allege that by opening the NATO Military Training Center in Georgia we are digging our own graves as after the center is opened the aggressor country will immediately gobble us up. We must only look forward and do our job. Russia will swallow us anyway if we are at our ease and don’t try to upgrade our military capabilities. Everyone knows that Russia can go as far as it can get away with, and we also are very well aware of the fact that the Russian leader does not approve our will to find our niche in the western family of nations. In my opinion, after the Russian-Georgian war of 2008, the European leaders made conclusions as per which they must deter Russia’s aggression and must stop it from realizing its plans whatever it takes, and I do think that they will take really effective steps in this direction soon,” alleges the respondent.
"It would be interesting to know how Russia sees stability in the Caucasus. No kind of equilibrium or balance exists in the region today; on the contrary, in our day-to-day world, the Caucasus can be defined as a black spot vulnerable to all kinds of dangers. Thus, it either seems to Russia that stability can really be achieved in the region or it simply wants the entire world to accept its point of view. Actually, only unstable peace reigns in Caucasus today. Russia thinks that it is an autocratic leader in the region and everything must be here as it wants; however, the people indigenous in the region don’t plan to let Russia lead them by their noses. Hence, as soon as Russia is forced to loosen its grip on the region, massive rebranding will undoubtedly occur here,” concludes the expert.
