The victorious Mikheil “Misha” Saakashvili

ANITA SĘK, YEaP Programme

The exclusive name invitations were sent to chosen people only. In the evening of November 14th representatives of the EEAS, European Commission, Parliament, Council, Permanent Representations and respected media met in Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, Brussels, for a closed meeting with President of Georgia, Mikheil Saakashvili. The Centre for International Initiatives was also there. 

It might be surprising for some observers to call “Misha” a victor. As a result of October 1st parliamentary elections he unexpectedly lost to a billionaire Bidzina Ivanishvili’s “Georgian Dream” coalition of nine parties, thus loosing the hopes the Georgian society trusted in him after the Rose Revolution of 2003/2004, as well as the ambitions of becoming prime minister having finished his second presidential term in October 2013. But style with which Saakashvili has been dealing with the handing over of power to the new authorities, the transition period, as well as the preparations to forthcoming cohabitation, is impressive. With these smooth processes Georgia has proved not only to be rooted in democratic European values; it proved to have a real 21st century statesman, a politician that some European countries could only dream of.

Presidential visit to Brussels held place at the same time that of the new Prime Minister took place though it must be underlined that the meetings were not coordinated. Saakashvili expressed his satisfaction with the fact that the new government came to meet EU and NATO partners, seeing in it “an important educational process” for the new equipe.

Misha reiterated the relevance and success of developments in Georgia since his overtaking of power: despite the financial crisis, Georgian’s GDP growth reached 7% last year and is expected to reach 8% this year; the country was ranked 9th in an annual “Doing Business” Report by the World Bank, acquiring better position than the majority of EU Member States; moreover, Tbilisi is said to have nowadays the least corrupted government in Europe. President was also referring to the new architectural image of Georgia with freshly built buildings of parliament, president palace, ministries, justice, police, museum, theatres, hotels, residencies etc.

Throughout the whole evening, Saakashvili kept emphasizing the importance of:

• continuity of a well functioning Georgian state;
• sticking to the Euro-Atlantic path of democracy, respect for human rights and free media (“the fundamental rights given to society cannot be reversed”), and awaiting the NATO and EU membership perspectives;
• not allowing on Georgia becoming somebody’s (Russian) protectorate.

He reminded also that Georgia remains the only Eastern Partnership country in which there exists firm societal consensus on Euro-Atlantic integrations.

Misha sounded proud of a way the power has been handed over to the new government and of a smoothness with which the transition has been done; he did not elaborate on the forthcoming cohabitation, but he ensured that his “aim is not to undermine the credibility of the new government” and that he is “there to help them”. Moreover, Saakashvili seems to understand that the game is not over yet – to prove its democratic credentials, Georgia must pass the tests of the next and the next elections as well.

Asked by me about the constitution changes, which will decompose the Georgian system from presidential, to parliamentarian one, with a stronger position of prime minister at the cost of president of the republic (legally they should be in force after October 2013 presidential elections, but the new government, referring to the mandate it received from the society in elections, stated that the changes shall be implemented immediately), Misha commented that: (1) “the changes have been proposed in an European spirit, worked out together with the European partners” [thus their time will come as agreed] and (2) he believes to have already handed over much more power than the constitution requires him to, in order “to make it easier for the new authorities to function and lead the country well”. However, he underlined the fact that any other changes not foreseen in the agreement for October 2013 must be consulted with the Venice Group of the Council of Europe. “There is no place for infringements”, he added.

On trial cases currently being open (against inter alia Minister of Defence and personal presidential guard), a Carnegie expert from Washington insinuated that perhaps it is an effect of one of the most punitive systems introduced by President himself [Georgia is the country with the highest number of prisoners per capita]. After a general explanation, Saakashvili did not want to comment on this matter further .

Talking about Russia, it seemed as if President was much less aggressive than he used to be, avoiding direct blaming Moscow for internal intervening and for its approach towards the “breakaway regions” of Abkhazia and South Ossetia, and opening himself on rapprochement with the country. As Georgian participants present at the meeting commented, such an attitude towards Russia is now awaited by Georgian society. Nevertheless, Misha underlined the fact that the Georgian example of free and fair elections is dangerous for current Russian authorities, posing a serious challenge to its authoritarian system.

Generally, as it was heard in the couloirs after the meeting, President’s post-election / transition / cohabitation attitude was welcomed very positively and his appearance judged as professional and seriously committed to European future of modernised Georgia.

Fingers crossed for this geographically small South Caucasus country with such a rich political culture.

 Mikheil Saakashvili’s speech is available here.

See also :
A.Sęk, Wake up call on the Eastern front