“The United National Movement simply cannot fall into a worse state than it is today. The party is in a profound crisis. The UNM has lost 70% of its regional grassroots core, partly due to betrayal, interference from the regime, and also mistakes, including my own mistakes. I trusted some people too much, and perhaps I offended others,” the former President of Georgia, Mikheil Saakashvili, wrote on social media.

According to him, he will continue the fight, and the dictatorship will undoubtedly be defeated.

“Friends, I want to explain my decision regarding Nanuka to you in more detail. The UNM simply cannot fall into a worse state than it is today. The party is in a profound crisis. The UNM has lost 70% of its regional grassroots core, partly due to betrayal, interference from the regime, and also mistakes, including my own mistakes. I trusted some people too much, and perhaps I offended others. Particularly of late, despite a sharp rise in my personal approval ratings, the UNM’s polling numbers are stagnating; the link between how the public perceives me and how they perceive the UNM has practically snapped.

The UNM Political Council has not convened for many months now. There was absolutely no communication between the current party chair and 90% of the core leadership. The party has completely ceased to project that it is capable of changing the government; it no longer shapes the political agenda and has become a mere shadow of its former strength.

I considered the prospect of Nanuka for several months. She possesses energy, experience, a natural talent for communicating with people, and the ability to win back the public, which is what we need most right now. Tina’s strengths lie in public speaking and international relations, so a co-chairmanship would have been an ideal outcome, but she took Nanuka’s arrival far too to heart. This is even though her term was due to expire in July anyway. In any event, I hold her in very high esteem; I am grateful to her, and she remains part of my team. I am certain she will occupy a dignified place in the future government.

I lay claim to the leadership of this party. Just as it is entirely fair for Levan Khabeishvili to claim co-leadership, the reality is that both of us are in captivity. Before that, I was in exile, and I could not properly engage in the processes from there either. In this situation, it is vital to have someone highly active on the ground, and I believed that Nanuka would provide that dynamism. We need to become a people’s party once again, and who is closer to the people, who is a greater champion for the public, if not Nanuka?

At the same time, I want to address you all: you are entirely free to put forward other candidates or stand yourselves. I am confident that the election will be transparent and fair.

Let our party core make the final decision. I have only one vote. If we are to have a democracy, let it be a true democracy! Our party belongs to you, our loyal comrades-in-arms. In any case, no one will ever be able to hold it against me that I did not try to save the UNM and get it back into shape. Regardless of what is decided, I will only continue the fight, and we will absolutely defeat the dictatorship,” Mikheil Saakashvili wrote.