Week 8 – 14 September: Georgia, the show must go on … or not?

On the 8th Shalva Natelashvili, the leader of the opposition Labor Party suggested, as a way to overcome the crisis in Georgia, that present leadership should resign. It is one of the breaches of the national unity that followed the August’s events.

Back the 12th from her tour in Europe and USA, Nino Buržanadze called for a probe about what happened. In straight contrast with the present national rhetoric, during a press conference she stressed that “[…] we have not won. We have been defeated severely in all directions.” Nino Buržanadze, one of the most popular politicians in the country, is a former supporter of President Saakashvili. She took distance from the Georgian leadership just before Parliamentary elections.
Actually, in the last year, Saakashili lost many comrades to the opposition, like former Foreign Minister Salome Zurabishvili, now of the Georgia’s way party, and former Defense Minister Irakli Okruashvili, arrested in September 2007 after having launched his own party, Movement for United Georgia, and who eventually fled to France. A French appeals court has rejected a request by Georgia to extradite him on the 10th .

President Saakashvili, during his speech in Gori, declared “I want to state with full responsibility: I am personally responsible and I assume full personal responsibility for each and every event […]. I also assume full personal responsibility for rebuilding and establishing peace in Georgia”, words that clearly suggest that he is not considering the chance to leave his position.