“In the end, it is up to the parties to take responsibility to sign the document. This is an opportunity for the leaders to demonstrate their democratic maturity.”
The Special Envoy of the President of the Council of Europe, Christian Daniesson, is visiting Georgia for the second time for mediation between the parties. Today, Daniesson met with the political parties separately to prepare the ground for tomorrow’s mediation between Georgian Dream and the opposition.
After the meetings today, Danielsson stated the goal was to find ways to accomplish the most difficult points of this mediation. He said that the compromise is difficult for everyone and requires political readiness to take the right steps. However, it has no alternative. “The priority is the national interest of Georgia, that is the only way out of the political crisis,” the Diplomat said.
Danielsson also emphasized the importance of ending the current crisis in order to diversify the attention and focus on important issues, such as: the pandemic, economy and national security.
He promised the parties to put the document on the table tomorrow and it will be the responsibility of the leaders of the political parties to sign it. Danielsson explained that the goal is to have a sustainable framework currently in place for the future.
“This is a way to restore trust. This proposal will address the need for systemic reform to increase public confidence in the electoral process and the judiciary.
“This is an opportunity for leaders to demonstrate their democratic maturity,” the EU Envoy stated.
The leaders of the opposition parties talked about the issues discussed in the meeting.
Salome Samadashvili, member of the National Movement stated that the issue of political prisoners, particularly the cases of Nika Melia and Giorgi Rurua were thoroughly discussed with Christian Danielson.
“Everyone, including the mediators, is well aware that without resolving this issue, there will be no room for agreement, and today we had a detailed conversation on the problems of political prisoners, the challenge in the judiciary system in the country and the problems of justice on a political note,” she added.
The chairman of the Strategy Builder party, Giorgi Vashadze, confirmed that that the final document of the agreement, which must be signed by the parties, will include the issue of early elections and political prisoners.
A similar statement was made by the leader of Republican Party, Khatuna Samnidze.
“This agreement cannot be reached without compromise, and both sides must be ready for that. There will be talk about it and there will be room for compromise when the issue of prisoners is resolved,” Samnidze said.
Girchi’s leader Zurab Japaridze said that today’s meeting it was hard for him to project the results of tomorrow’s meeting:
“Today neither the offer nor the passing of the points was detailed. I think it is so impossible to continue indefinitely.
“It’s just that after this meeting I had a hard time saying whether it would end in agreement or not. Today’s meeting does not allow us to discuss the fact that we have taken a step forward. We explained again what our position is,” Japaridze stated.
