MP Irakli Kadagishvili: It was reckless, externally dictated policies, not Ivanishvili, that pushed the opposition into the same boat

“Bidzina Ivanishvili did not force the collective United National Movement into the same boat; rather, it was their own reckless, externally dictated politics that brought them there,” declared MP Irakli Kadagishvili, Chairman of the Parliamentary Committee on Self-Governance.

Kadagishvili noted that the Georgian electorate had voted to give the opposition a mandate in Parliament, a path they chose to abandon. He observed that the collective opposition now finds itself plunged into a profound internal crisis.

“I do not think this comes as any news. Naturally, this crisis is driving party leaders into such fierce confrontation and mutual recriminations; charges that occasionally take an extremely sharp form,” Kadagishvili stated.

“Bidzina Ivanishvili did not put them in the same boat; they were brought to that point by their own foolish policy line, dictated from abroad. The Georgian voter gave them their support, and they had every opportunity to take their seats in Parliament. Instead, they received a unified command to abandon Parliament, the logic being that time was of the essence to stage a coup and seize power. They were plunged into this debacle by handlers both foreign and domestic. Today, they bear the full weight of that responsibility, a reality laid bare in the Constitutional Court proceedings,” Kadagishvili went on to say.

Kadagishvili’s remarks came in response to statements by former UNM Chair Tina Bokuchava, who had claimed that Ivanishvili was responsible for forcing the democratic opposition forces into a single political space.