Georgia's ruling coalition on brink of collapse
Georgia on Wednesday (05/11/2014) plunged into political crisis after the prime minister sacked his pro-Western defence minister and the foreign minister resigned in protest.
The surprise move by Prime Minister Irakli Garibashvili, announced Tuesday after a raft of corruption charges against high-ranking defence ministry officials, was decried by other cabinet members and now risks imminent collapse of the ruling coalition.
More government members have threatened to quit and some lawmakers have said they could go over to the opposition, thereby robbing Garibashvili of a parliamentary majority.
In a statement on Tuesday, Garibashvili said he dismissed his defence minister, Irakli Alasania, "in order to avoid politicisation of the Georgian armed forces and of the ministry of defence and in order to provide relevant conditions for an independent investigation" of his ministry.
But Alasania said the charges against ministry officials were "groundless and politically motivated" and levelled mainly because of his faction's support for closer ties with the West.
Alasania had been pushing for the former Soviet state to join NATO and the EU. "We are dealing with a deliberate attack against the defence ministry, which is a direct link in our country's chain with NATO and the European Union," he told a press conference.
Garibashvili dismissed the counter-allegations as "irresponsible speculation," saying Georgia's pro-Western orientation is "irreversible".
"Georgia's membership in NATO and the European Union is the choice of our people," he said.
The premier nominated a little-known 36-year-old official, Mindia Janelidze, who was secretary of the state security and crisis management council, to replace Alasania.
Alexi Petriashvili, the minister for European and Euro-Atlantic Integration and a close ally of Alasania, also resigned in protest Tuesday.
"Dictatorship is coming to Georgia, our democracy is in danger," Petriashvili said late Tuesday in televised remarks.
Foreign Minister Maia Panjikidze said on Wednesday that she and her four deputies were resigning "to show what threats the country is facing".
Deputy Prime Minister Kakhi Kaladze said that other members of Alasania's Free Democrats party, including the justice minister, "could also resign".
A source in the Georgian Dream ruling coalition told AFP that the Free Democrats - who control 10 seats in the 150-member legislature - would go into opposition, leaving the coalition without a majority in parliament.
Georgia's pro-Western President Giorgi Margvelashvili denounced the "political confrontation that endangers the functioning of state institutions and the country's Euro-Atlantic integration".
The US ambassador to Georgia, Richard Norland, said he was concerned that recent legal action against Georgian officials could be for political ends.
"The number and scope of prosecutions of former and current officials raises legitimate concern that the judicial system is being used in a politicised way, or for political purposes," the diplomat said.
Opinion polls have repeatedly shown that Alasania, who leads the Free Democrats, is the most popular politician within the ruling coalition.
The grouping of parties was assembled by former prime minister and billionaire tycoon Bidzina Ivanishvili, who came to power in October 2012, ending the decade-long rule of the pro-Western president Mikheil Saakashvili and his United National Movement (UNM) party.
Scores of former top Saakashvili officials have been arrested and thousands of UNM supporters interrogated over the last two years for alleged wrongdoing, prompting warnings from the West over selective justice and persecution of political opponents.
Ivanishvili stepped down in 2013 and chose his protege Garibashvili, 31, to take over as premier, but the tycoon is widely believed to continue to wield power over the tiny Caucasus nation behind the scenes. - AFP
