Ivanishvili accused Margvelashvili of disobeying the informal leader of the ruling coalition on several issues: he had appointed Vano Machavariani, the brother of one of the closest associates of the ex-president, as his advisor, moved into the presidential palace built by Mikheil Saakashvili and tried (!) to veto the bill on witness questioning which increases the powers of the Interior Ministry.
Later, the president and prime minister had a public argument about who should have the right to grant/revoke Georgian citizenship and be the head of the National Security Council apparatus.Vestnik Kavkaza has talked with political analyst Irakli Machavariani about the prospects of the crisis within the ruling party.- Irakly what is happening with the coalition ?- Its current leaders, Ivanishvili and Margvelashvili, don't have enough political experience. They defeated Saakashvili and the United National Movement. We should thank them for that. But as for governing the country, they are not very competent at it. Georgian Dream came to power not only on promises not to do evil. Among other things, it promised to eliminate all the evil that had been done in the previous years. In this regard, I do not see much progress. Although one can see that they are trying. For example, some progress has been made in the investigation into the murder of former Prime Minister Zurab Zhvania. I have no doubts that it was a murder and not an accident. But everything is done very slowly and incompetently.I think that Ivanishvili and Margvelashvili have problems also due to inexperience. They have started to make their dispute public, make public statements. This is wrong, since they represent the same political force and should not wash their dirty linen in public. It is better to keep secret what is happening behind the scenes.- What could this lead to?- President Margvelashvili is an intelligent man and he should realize that he is nothing but a politician. His ambitions are groundless. Even though he was elected by the population, his popularity rests on the authority of Ivanishvili and any disagreements with Ivanishvili will end to the disadvantage of the president. Based on the current constitution, the president has almost zero authority. He might remain president if there is no reason for him to resign, but in reality if he dares to enter into a confrontation with Ivanishvili and his entourage it will only ruin him. He should come to his senses before it's too late.
