If not Ivanishvili, Zourabichvili would not be elected as President – GD head Kobakhidze

The ruling Georgian Dream (GD) party chair Irakli Kobakhidze slammed the country’s President Salome Zourabichvili for her recent comment over the founder of the GD Bidzina Ivanishvili, saying on Monday that if not Ivanishvili, Zourabichvili would not have been elected as the country’s president back in 2018.

Zourabichvili said in her comments last week over the critical EP resolution that “neither Saakashvili [ex-President of Georgia], Gvaramia [imprisoned head of the Mtavari channel] nor Bidzina Ivanishvili are worth enough to sacrifice the country’s future.”

“The statement made by the President over Ivanishvili was morally difficult to listen to. It was absolutely unacceptable to mention the three names in the same context,” Kobakhidze told Imedi TV on Monday.

Kobakhidze suggested that Zourabichvili was making “unclear statements” even  during the election campaign.

“I really do not know what the president wants. We were directly involved in her presidential campaign. The whole process lasted for about 45 days and we could not understand what she wanted and why she was making certain statements,” Kobakhidze said.

He said that “given the President is a symbolic figure in a parliamentary republic, the focus was made on symbolism while choosing the candidate to support for the president.”

Kobakhidze suggested that Ivanishvili supported Zourabichvili’s candidacy as she was a successor of a well-known Georgian diaspora representative in France, a Georgian woman with European values.

The European Parliament resolution on media freedom and security of journalists last week called for imposing sanctions on Ivanishvili for his “destructive role” in Georgian politics and “connections with the Kremlin.”