Girchi More Freedom’s Japaridze: No consensus on local election without new parliamentary elections

“Yesterday we heard what there is agreement on. There is no consensus on participating in local elections without scheduling new parliamentary elections and releasing political prisoners,” says Zurab Japaridze, leader of the Girchi More Freedom party.

Salome Zourabichvili’s publicly stated position was and remains that she will only support what the opposition spectrum agrees on. What you heard yesterday is what there is consensus on. There is no agreement on other issues. This includes such a fundamental issue as participating in local elections without scheduling new parliamentary elections and releasing all political prisoners, Zurab Japaridze posted on social media.

According to Japaridze, it causes dissatisfaction that what was said yesterday is not enough.

“If there are any other conditions that can be met, besides these two, which could become the basis for participation in local elections, then these conditions should be stated publicly (I haven’t heard even one such condition yet). Otherwise, considering the experience after the 2020 elections, people naturally get the feeling that some are waiting for the protest to fade so they can later say: Nothing came of the street protests anyway, so let me at least use the city council tribune, meaning they aren’t ‘all in’ on the fight.

Moreover, there is no consensus on a unified vision of how we force these bastards to schedule new parliamentary elections (apart from protests on Rustaveli). It causes dissatisfaction that what was said yesterday is not enough. There are two ways out of this: either the parties agree on more (this requires more unity), primarily on a vision for victory, and Salome Zourabichvili announces this, or Salome Zourabichvili unilaterally takes more responsibility upon herself. This is the truth. If we stop attacking each other every time, perhaps we can think more about a solution. I have been a supporter of the first scenario for a long time, for years. If there’s anything I can do, I’m doing everything for this. Otherwise, I think we won’t survive,” stated Zurab Japaridze.