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said.
2.2 PM’s resignation is a make-or-break moment for Georgia
Georgia has just had its fifth change of prime minister since Georgian Dream (GD) came to power in 2012. Irakli Garibashvili, who previously held the position from 2013 to 2015, is back.
Since Bidzina Ivanishvili, the founder of GD and its first PM, resigned in November 2013, it has been widely presumed that he continues to be the principal decision-maker behind the scenes, prime ministers being expendable managers rather than true political leaders. Of them, Giorgi Kvirikashvili stayed the longest, at two years and five months. Giorgi Gakharia, who resigned on February 18, could not even make it to the year-and-a-half mark. Based on this experience, another change should not be a big deal.
However, this one is different. Gakharia was the first to resign on a specific political issue and in a very dramatic moment. He announced his decision when the government was trying to arrest Nika Melia, the chairman of the strongest opposition party, the United National Movement (UNM).
Representatives of virtually all opposition parties and civic activists gathered in the UNM headquarters to resist the arrest. The PM said that he was resigning because he failed to convince his political team that under the circumstances, arresting the leader of the opposition would not be wise.
Later, he also explained his decision on Twitter in English: “I believe that confrontation and rivalry within the country endanger the future of [Georgia]'s democratic & economic development. Therefore, I have announced my resignation in the hope to reduce polarization & de-escalate the situation.” However, no such de-escalation is in sight.
Garibashvili was chosen as the next prime minister by the ruling party on the same day as Gakharia's resignation. He is Ivanishvili’s former personal assistant whose main distinction is unswerving loyalty to his boss. This loyalty was put to the test when, in December 2015, he was pushed to resign, without mentioning any reason for this in his resignation statement. Between then and March 2019, when he emerged as the political secretary of GD (in September the same year he became the minister of defence), he was seldom seen in public. Ivanishvili is known for inexplicable changes of moods towards his lieutenants; but whatever the reason behind his punishing of Garibashvili in 2015, by now Garibashvili appears to have been fully rehabilitated.
Garibashvili is also known for especially belligerent attitudes towards the opposition and civil society. As a PM-designate, he quickly referred to the UNM as a “criminal force”, as he has done on many occasions. He had earlier said that so-called “cohabitation” was the main mistake of the GD government and this had to be corrected: In government supporters’ jargon, this term stands for the recognition of the UNM as a legitimate political actor. He is also known for attacking civil society organisations.
To be sure, Garibashvili is not the only GD politician who is aggressive towards government critics, but he usually outperforms them on this account. This has
7 GEORGIA Country Report March 2021 www.intellinews.com