The ruling party and the opposition party need to have the political courage to take these difficult steps forward. They need to understand that compromise is not a sign of weakness and their supporters need to understand that as well, the US Ambassador to Georgia Kelly Degnan declared in the TV Program Kviris Interview (Interview of the Week) on the Georgian Public Broadcaster.

The US Ambassador believes the country needs a healthy ruling party to be balanced by a healthy opposition within the parliament.

“It’s all of the parties, the ruling party, the opposition party need to have the political courage to take these difficult steps forward. They need to understand that compromise is not a sign of weakness and their supporters need to understand that as well. In fact, compromise is the way to bridge differences as we see in Georgia. It’s a sign of respect to the voters. No party won a majority in last October’s elections. And the simple fact is that democracy cannot function without a willingness to compromise in the best interests of all the people of Georgia,” Kelly Degnan stated.

The Ambassador added she was participating in the renewed negotiations mediated by European Council President Michel’s special envoy Ambassador Danielsson.

“And while no agreement was reached last week, it was not for lack of trying. It was a lot of good effort by all the parties. But I’m a strong advocate of an immediate resolution to this crisis because I think Georgia has some serious challenges that it needs to be focusing on. But I recognize there are still very deep divides within Georgian society. And it’s the United States strong belief that the place to bridge those divides is in parliament, where members of parliament can debate the issues and adopt legislation that will advance the kinds of reforms that Georgia very much needs at this point in its democratic development. A parliament that is dominated by one party is not healthy,” the Ambassador concluded.