“The United National Movement needs to stop casting itself as the victim; this party has already been through the most gruelling of ordeals. To turn around now and add that ‘everyone is fighting me too’ is nothing short of a demonstration of weakness. You cannot clamour for a change of government while simultaneously claiming that you are everyone’s victim at once. It just doesn’t work that way,” declared Nika Gvaramia, one of the leaders of the Opposition Alliance.
Furthermore, Gvaramia noted that although the United National Movement is formally part of the Opposition Alliance, Mikheil Saakashvili is effectively using them as a conduit to communicate with the alliance through letters.
“I don’t speak to people through letters, yet the United National Movement has Saakashvili speaking to us while he himself is in prison. How can a party vote in favour of everything, only for us to hear the exact opposite from its leader the very next day, saying ‘this is no good’? Let them explain to me why that party is even sitting at the table if Misha has to write everything himself. What is the United National Movement even for, if Misha Saakashvili has to do all the talking anyway?” Gvaramia stated during an appearance on TV Pirveli.
At the same time, Nika Gvaramia pointed out that the United National Movement has effectively ceased its efforts within the Opposition Alliance over the past month and a half.
“This is a party that hasn’t attended a single meeting for the past month and a half, has taken no part in any decision-making, and didn’t lift a finger for the May 26 rally, apart from demanding to take the stage at the final moment. However, the very next day, as soon as they saw the huge turnout, they targeted us. Now, you tell me: are they a member or not?
The attacks were directed at our party’s mid- and lower-level members. I will not tolerate this. When it comes to me, it’s nothing new. Regrettably, the United National Movement has joined forces with Georgian Dream, even adopting their exact vocabulary, hurling insults like ‘chicken’, ‘Nikutsa’, and the like. If Misha doesn’t know about this, let him hear it from here. I want him to know,” Gvaramia remarked.
When asked whether they were considering expelling the United National Movement from the Alliance, Gvaramia replied: “I’m not even thinking about opening that discussion. Firstly, how do you deliberate on something that isn’t even relevant? These people aren’t present there. And by the way, letting them speak at the rally was no simple matter, justifiably so, because these people contributed absolutely nothing. Showing up at the end with a poster of Misha and standing in the front row is not what ‘participating in a rally’ means. Do you know why they stood there? So Misha would see them and wouldn’t ask later, ‘Where are you, what are you doing, why do you not exist?'”
Nika Gvaramia also spoke regarding Nika Melia. When asked, “When Nika Melia is released from prison, will you and Melia be together again?”, Gvaramia noted that while anything is hypothetically possible, there is currently no reason to believe they will part ways.
“Nothing gives me reason to say it won’t be that way. Hypothetically, of course, I rule nothing out. Politics is moving incredibly fast, a great deal has changed, and the political landscape now has a very different configuration, which has naturally extended to matters of personal alignment. Naturally, it came to this. But what I am absolutely certain of is that I will never lose my emotional bond with this man. I would never subject him to what I have been reading over the last few days, the things written by his former teammates, by people who worked with him when he was chairman. I know for a fact this won’t happen. Even if our paths diverge, those on my side will never write such things about Nika Melia, and those on his side will never write them about me. That is what is most valuable to me, to be honest,” Gvaramia said.
Additionally, addressing comments made by United National Movement member Ana Tsitlidze, Gvaramia stated: “I am telling you what actually happened. Your previous interviewee was spinning a web of disgraceful lies. She claims I capitalised on someone else’s back. No, I achieved everything I have by working day and night. Saakashvili opened doors for me in many ways, but he also paved the way for those who were here and for many others as well. Yet, some of these people have never managed to rise above the level of a spitting, loitering, sunflower-seed-chewing politician.”
