TBILISI, APRIL 7 2017 (The Conway Bulletin) — In his annual address to Parliament, Georgian President Giorgi Margvelashvili accused the ruling Georgian Dream party of hampering the democratic development of the country, reflecting the growing rift between the head of state and his former parliamentary colleagues.
Mr Margvelashvili main frustrations were the concentration of power in the hands of the ruling party, the lack of dialogue with the opposition and constitutional reforms which will turn the presidency into a token position.
Last year the Georgian Dream crushed its main rival, the United National Movement party of former president Mikheil Saakashvili in a parliamentary election. It won an outright majority but Mr Margvelashvili said that it had failed to achieve any lasting good despite its dominance.
“Last November, I addressed the newly elected parliament and said the formation of a constitutional majority raised the threat of concentration of power, but at the same time raised the prospect of bold reforms and initiatives,” he said. “What do we actually have five months later? The potential threat has become a serious problem, and the dynamics of reforms are not impressive.”
Mr Margvelashvili was elected president in 2013 as Georgian Dream’s candidate. However, his relationship with the ruling party has collapsed.
Ghia Nodia, professor of politics and director of the International School of Caucasus Studies in Ilia Chavchavadze State University in Tbilisi, said that the row between Mr Margvelashvili and Bidzina Ivanishvili, Georgia’s richest man and the power behind the Georgian Dream, had become a personal matter.
“The President is considered to be a traitor,” he said. “I don’t think the President wanted a conflict but to be loyal to Ivanishvili is a condition of the Georgian Dream coalition but Margvelashvili decided to be independent and to be a protector of the constitution.”
