Merabishvili appointment as PM draws mixed response
By Ernest Petrosyan
Monday, July 2
The current reshuffle of the cabinet has become the most significant and predictable, as many had been anticipating such changes. However, for the first time since the death of Prime Minister Zurab Zhvania in 2005, [one of the leaders of 2003 Rose revolution], the PM’s office is being assumed by a crucial political figure of the ruling party.
“I am appointing Vano Merabishvili as Georgia’s new Prime Minister. He will present to the parliament, the government’s new program and new cabinet for confirmation on Monday,” said President Saakashvili, standing along with former and current PMs.
“Vano is a person, who could manage to defeat corruption and crime; I am sure that he will also defeat our main enemy – unemployment,” remarked the President.
Merabishvili, who is scheduled to present the new cabinet for confirmation in parliament on Monday, said unemployment, agriculture and healthcare would be the focus of his tenure.
“Our plan will be based on these major principles, because unemployment still remains the country’s main challenge; there are still too many people in Georgia, who are not able to receive proper healthcare and Georgian agriculture needs development. I know that there are many unemployed people in Georgia,” said the premier-to-be.
“My major goal will be a very definite one – more benefit to people. It is time to make each and every family in Georgia feel the results of Georgia’s development, modernization and progress,” Merabishvili said, adding that Georgia’s modernization and economic development should be felt by each citizen as it happened with the police reforms.
The pre-election reshuffle is likely to last at least until October's elections, after which, according to the Georgian constitution the government, as well as the PM will have to resign and the president will have to present new ministers and a cabinet or re-submit the one existing for the parliament’s approval.
Meanwhile, the amendments in the Georgian constitution, which are supposed to come into force beginning from the 2013 presidential elections, are designed to increase the PM’s power while weakening presidential authority.
The reshuffle has indeed triggered a huge resonance in the society. Opinions and assessments of the population are different and frequently controversial.
Bidzina Ivanishvili, the leader of Georgian Dream opposition coalition, who hailed Merabishvili’s police reforms, is also criticizing the MIA for being politically biased, assessed the reshuffle as an “increase of violence over its people”. As Ivanishvili remarked in his July 1 visit to Stepantsminda, the government wants to make the police stricter, which once again proves the foolishness of the government.
"The Georgian People are very optimistic and very powerful. Let them do whatever they want to do, they have only a couple of months remaining, and we will release them all," said Ivanishvili, promising a better government.
Analyst Soso Tsiskarishvili says that Saakashvili made his dream come true, as under Merabishvili, there will be no political threats. “If such a reshuffle would have happened a couple of years before, it would have been fruitful. However, now it is just a political insurance of the current government.
Some observers opine that the naming of powerful former interior minister as PM may signal that President Saakashvili is not considering remaining in power as PM after his second and final term in office expires in late 2013. But some commentators tend to tie this recent cabinet reshuffle with the upcoming parliamentary elections in order to ensure more votes.
As for Merabishvili’s successors at MIA minister’s office, according to some rumors, the candidacy of Education Minister Dimitry Shashkin, Defense Minister Bacho Akhalaia, and Merabishvili’s Deputy Eka Zghuladze are being considered.