Azernews.Az

By Elmira Tariverdiyeva

Trend Agency's staff commentator

After the memorable parliamentary election of 2012, when Bidzina Ivanishvili's current ruling party came to power, Georgia for the first time obtained a chance for creating the real and strong opposition led by former Defense Minister Irakli Alasania.

Georgian Prime Minister Irakli Garibashvili dismissed Alasania Nov. 4.

Alasania has all the prerequisites to create and to unite the strong opposition bloc.

First, Alasania is the highest ranking politician in the country, according to the recent polls. He was well-known even before he joined Garibashvili's government. Young but promising politician Alasania was Georgia's permanent representative to the UN, representing the country in the international arena. Alasania, called the most probable successor of the then President Saakashvili, joined the ex-president's opposition in December 2008.

Second, Alasania did not leave Garibashvili's team alone. Two popular ministers, namely, former Foreign Minister Maia Panjikidze and former State Minister for Integration into European and Euro-Atlantic structures Alexi Petriashvili, who is Alasania's colleague in "Our Georgia - Free Democrats" party, also resigned. Several officials of the foreign ministry, including the first deputy minister and the country's representative to the UN voiced their decision about resignation.

Moreover, Alasania's party "Our Georgia - Free Democrats" decided to leave the ruling coalition. Afterwards, the latter loses the majority of votes in the parliament. Of course, this will weaken the ruling regime.

One should realize that the serious political backbone surrounding Alasania, just can't be out of the picture.

Apparently, Alasania's team has a chance to create a strong oppositional bloc in the very near future. All the more so, the former minister's associates have a proven platform - the course towards the country's European integration.

It is not accidental that each of the resigning politicians emphasized that they are resigning from their posts due to the changing of the country's political course, that's to say, because Georgia is abandoning its course towards European integration. We already know which developments took place in Ukraine due to the suspicions of backing down from the country's European integration course.

It is noteworthy that the resigned team of the ministers was enjoying trust and support of the West. The US has already expressed concern about the current political situation in Georgia.

Being concerned about the resignations in Georgian government, the US urges the parties to work towards ensuring stability and democracy in the country, according to the statement of the US State Department spokesperson Jen Psaki.

"We have greatly appreciated the work of these ministers in service to their country and in partnership with the United States," said the statement.

Georgian government naturally, is able to prevent the creation of an oppositional coalition by Alasania. It is not accidental that several criminal cases were initiated against the Defense Ministry headed by Alasania some time before his resignation. Nevertheless, this can even more escalate the situation and the prime minister will hardly take such risky steps now.