Page 8 - GEORptAug22

2.4 Protestors in Georgia call for PM to resign
Citizens of Georgia flocked onto Tbilisi's streets and Rustaveli Avenue again in a pro-EU rally and to protest against the Georgian Dream party. This came right after the failure of the Georgian government to secure the country's EU candidate status and PM Garibashvili accused the opposition instead of the failure.
Organisers of a pro-European rally in front of parliament on June 24 gave Prime Minister Irakli Garibashvili and his government a week to resign. The organisers called for the formation of an interim "technical government" under the conditions of "national consensus", which will fulfil all 12 recommendations of the European Commission in order to obtain candidate status within the prescribed time frame. “Our government ignored the will of the Georgian people, the will of 85% of the population. Our government has trampled on the constitution,” Shota Digmelashvili, one of the founders of the Shame civil movement, said.
According to him, the will of the Georgian people does not coincide with the will of the oligarch Bidzina Ivanishvili, therefore "deoligarchisation is the main issue, without which Georgia's European integration is impossible".
“In the event that Bidzina Ivanishvili [Georgian Dream founder] does not listen to the will of the Georgian people, we will come even more than today, than on June 20, and show them [the authorities] the anger of the Georgian people,” Digmelashvili said.
Organisers announced that the next rally would take place on July 3, noting that if the demonstrators' demands were not met, "we will not disperse until the oligarchy disintegrates". "I'm not going to resign, this is completely absurd, on the contrary, we are obliged to fully fulfil all the conditions that we and our team have assumed," Garibashvili earlier said in response to a correspondent’s question about his possible resignation.
2.5 Georgian PM puts brave face on European Commission decision not to grant candidate status
Georgian Prime Minister Irakli Garibashvili tried to put a brave face on Georgia's failure to secure EU candidate status from Brussels, saying that the country would work towards being given the status.
Last week the European Commission did not recommend giving Georgia candidate status – while allowing Ukraine and Moldova to go forward – because of the country's democratic deficits.
Garibashvili said on 20 July before the government meeting that the European Commission has taken a "historic decision", as for the first time in Georgia's history a European perspective has been recognised.
"Now, as soon as the Council (EU) approves these recommendations, we will, of course, start working with Brussels," he said, adding that "most of these recommendations are already on our agenda, there are other issues that we, of course, will find out with Brussels, we will work it out and get the status of a
8 GEORGIA Country Report August 2022 www.intellinews.com