By Vestnik Kavkaza
One of the main topics for the Georgian press has become the necessity to form a new government of the Republic due to the fact that the resignation of the head of the Ministry of Sport, Levan Kipiani, caused a change in one third of the Cabinet of Ministers. "The cabinet, together with the Prime Minister, includes 20 people, which means that the prime minister at his discretion could change six ministers in the government, and in case of change of the seventh, the Cabinet is in need of a motion of confidence from Parliament. The Parliament of Georgia is considering a new government within 7 days. Approval of at least 76 deputies is needed to declare a motion of confidence. Within 2 days after the announcement of a motion of confidence by parliament, the president appoints the prime minister, who also in 2 days appoints the other members of the government. If the president does not issue a legal act on the appointment of a Prime Minister in this period, then he will be counted as automatically assigned," Resonansi writes.
"If the government has a problem with the announcement of confidence in parliament and all the procedures and time limits prescribed in the constitution will be violated, the president will dismiss parliament and call early elections. It should be pointed out that on April 29 Levan Kipiani was the seventh minister to resign. The minister of infrastructure and the minister of environmental protection left their positions two days earlier. This means that before the announcement of a motion of confidence, all the ministers today are just acting ministers. But it is not known when the President will present the Parliament a new government composition. Giorgi Margvelashvili has not made any comments, and Garibashvili asked for one week to resolve this issue," the newspaper notes.
The government crisis broke out against the background of the difficult economic and social situation in the country. "The depreciation of the lari has created serious problems for the development of the economy. The Association of Small and Medium-sized Businesses says that some manufacturers have closed, and some have reduced turnover. Problems arose for large businesses too. The depreciation of the lari continues. The National Bank does not undertake anything for the suspension of the process. The government is also inactive. In the last two months the currencies of the region, which have experienced a devaluation, are strengthening or maintaining stability now. Only the Georgian lari is continuing to fall," Resonansi reports.
"The President of the Association of Small and Medium-sized Businesses, Mikhail Chelidze, notes that the devaluation of the lari made business face serious challenges. They have problems in the direction of lease and loan payments. According to Chelidze, Georgia adopted a standard – loans are always in dollars. Consequently, the depreciating rate increased payments. However, some businessmen have loans in laris, but this process mainly hit medium-sized and large businesses. Because of this, their incomes decreased, and some businessmen have been forced to fire their employees to cut costs," the publication writes.
Economic problems are hitting not only business, but also ordinary people.
"The population of Georgia is approaching a social default. Due to the increase of costs as a result of devaluation and inflation, the majority of citizens cannot deal with bank loans. In the first three months of 2015 the amount of overdue loans increased by 74 million laris, in other words, by 29.4%, while loans in foreign currency are up by 44.4%," Resonansi notes.
According to Georgian National Bank, from January to March inclusive, the volume of overdue loans increased by 29.4% in banking institutions and amounted to 325.6 million laris. According to GNB data, in January, the volume of overdue loans amounted to 251.654 million laris, and on April 1 this figure reached 325 631 million laris. It is noteworthy that the depreciation of the exchange rate of the lari mostly increased the cost of borrowing in the foreign currency, which increases the risk of delay. If users have taken loans from the bank in foreign currency before the depreciation of the lari, then now they will have to return about one third more. Based on this, bank debt could not be paid on time. In comparison with January to April, the volume of overdue loans increased by 44.4%, as compared to March – by 8.8%. The index of overdue loans in foreign currency, compared to January, increased by 15.7%, while compared to March – by 4%," the newspaper reports the disappointing statistics.
"All of this points to the fact that some of the population have difficulties in fulfilling obligations to banks and are approaching social default. If the economic situation in the foreign exchange market won’t stabilize, it will be more difficult for the population to service their loans," the author of the article concludes.
All these problems give rise to calls to send Prime Minister Irakli Garibashvili into resignation, and return Bidzina Ivanishvili, who is considered to be the "éminence grise" of Georgian politics, to the post he formerly held.
"Rather than recognize the situation – namely, the fact that the Prime Minister and his team will not be able to lead the country out of the crisis – they still decided to send the same composition of the government to the Parliament. This government will receive a motion of confidence from the absolutely obedient majority. Parliament has lost its function. The majority do not control the government and dutifully carry out the decisions of Bidzina Ivanishvili. So we are waiting for a motion of confidence in the government," Resonansi quotes a member of the 'Free Democrats', Nino Goguadze, as saying.
"The fact is that the country has a currency crisis. The economy is in a very difficult situation. The government cannot call the events by their proper names, and look into the eyes of reality – they say there is no crisis. The most appropriate solution would be for Ivanishvili to return as prime minister. It would be the return of the real ruler to the official position. The country would no longer have an informal government, which is devastating and totally inappropriate for a democratic and fair country. In case of return, Ivanishvili will take responsibility for everything and people will see and appreciate the activities of Ivanishvili and his team. Therefore, we call for Mr. Ivanishvili to return to the post of prime minister," she said.
Another theme that has riveted the attention of the Georgian press became the approaching 'Eastern Partnership' summit in Riga, at which the country pins its hopes for the abolition of the visa regime with EU countries.
"Sweden, Denmark, the UK, Eastern Europe and the former Yugoslavia are some of the countries that support the introduction of a visa-free regime between the EU and Georgia and our European integration in general. The authorities also named countries that have a negative attitude to this issue, as well as those who have a neutral attitude. However, with the Riga Summit approaching, this topic will be increasingly important. Which countries can prevent us joining the Schengen zone and why is a heavily discussed topic in Georgia," Resonansi reports.
"Both government and experts are saying that the action plan, the implementation of which we were assigned before the Riga summit, is completed well. It is much better than what Moldova, which achieved visa liberalization a year ago, has done. They do not deny that, despite this, despite the diligent implementation of the "homework", we cannot achieve the desired result at the Riga Summit. The reason for this is called the situation in world politics and global problems, which the Georgian authorities cannot solve," the newspaper notes.
Against this background, more and more voices of skeptics, who believe that country will suffer a bitter disappointment in Riga, are being sounded. "The educated part of the population with prospects will not leave Georgia, just ordinary workers. And Europeans already have their own workers. The European prisons are filled with Georgians. Who else needs Georgians and such a headache?! For 15 years, we seem to be moving towards Europe, and the authorities have not taught people how walk down the street. The introduction of European values should have started 15 years ago. People have not learned to move only on the green light and not to stop the car on the sidewalks and in front of entryways. In the capital, avenues turned into markets, people are selling herbs on the avenues," Resonansi quoted the Rector of the Diplomatic Academy, Soso Tsintsadze, as saying.
"So they do not dare to write anything about the European prospects, or else they will have to come sometimes and repeat that we will become members of the EU. As you can see, our authorities are tired of Europe, so they are hinting to us that we should not hope for it. But no one will say it openly – this is politics. They will say that the reforms have not been completed, the wording will be like this – "The EU welcomes the far-reaching reforms, which have brought Georgia success, but there is still a long way to go for the country," this "but" is the key word," he thinks.
"They are being cynical with us. Some refugee from Uganda has more chances of becoming a citizen of the EU, because no one returns them to their villages. Their children are more likely to become Europeans than our children. It is cynicism! Providing simplified visa arrangements at this summit is not possible. They will not give us anything real. European officials are endowed with great imagination and they will come up with something, as they did at the Wales NATO summit – we were not given the MAP, they came up with some sort of neutral formula and called it a 'golden package'. The same will happen in Riga," Tsintsadze summed up.
