On 15 December, the head of the United National Movement (UNM) opposition party Grigol Vashadze stated that he has left the party and said that the presence of “odious figures” in the party and attacks on the diplomatic corps and “other controversies” pushed him to resign.  

“I disagree with the recent tactics [of] UNM leaders that have been chosen without consultations with party members, as well as the absence of a party strategy. There are odious figures in and around the party who are a part of the past and will never be able to regain the public trust,” Vashadze further stated in his Facebook post. Vashadze spoke especially negatively over the attack on foreign ambassadors by the Georgian opposition. “It gives the impression that those who are part of this campaign have never heard that attacking an Ambassador equals attacking a state he/she represents, which has been guarding the Georgian state and its territorial integrity since the day it regained independence,” Vashadze remarked. Vashadze’s statement came just a day after the former First Deputy Prosecutor General and the founder of opposition minded Mtavari TV Nika Gvaramia accused the EU and US ambassadors in the country of anti-Georgian behaviour (Caucasus Watch reported).

The UNM members differently accessed Vashadzes’s resignation. “I think Grigol Vashadze is a big loss for the UNM, but I understand his decision and wish him luck,” his party colleague Salome Samadashvili said. Khatia Dekanoidze, another UNM leader, criticized the chairman for quitting with a single statement, with no prior communication with his colleagues, and disagreed with Vashadze’s concerns. “Generals do not disapprove of the army’s strategy,” she added.

The Executive Secretary of the ruling Georgian Dream party Irakli Kobakhidze also commented on Vashadze’s announcement, saying that political processes unfold “in the right direction.” He noted that so-called “odious figures” are today dissolving [United] National Movement and European Georgia. The Parliament Speaker from the ruling Georgian Dream party Archil Talakvadze stated that the “reasons named by Vashadze behind his resignation are a deadly diagnosis for the UNM.”  

To note, Vashadze already faced harsh criticism from his UNM colleagues when he called on other opposition parties to sit at the table with the ruling Georgian Dream (GD) party to resolve election-related complications amid post-election protests (Caucasus Watch reported). Vashadze later explained that the protests must continue, but that a political component must be added to this protest immediately - through the mediation of strategic allies in the form of negotiations on the implementation of the principles of fair elections. 

Meanwhile, the animosity between the opposition and the western ambassadors in Georgia continues. The German ambassador to Georgia Hubert Knirsch commented again on the issue and the concerns that such statements could affect anti-Western sentiments in the country. “I think such statements should not be taken too seriously. We should set prizes for the most exotic and imaginative statements. Personally, my favourite is the idea of ​​comparing the opposition with Ketevan Tsamebuli. The opposition is being tortured in the presence of diplomats, and they are expected to do the terrible thing, which they voted for, which is to enter the parliament. I would also like to ask the media, do not make a big deal of whatever they say,” Knirsch said. 

The founder of the Georgian Tabula TV Tamar Chergoleishvili criticised Knirsch’s statement. “The German ambassador should, as a rule, avoid sarcasm with historical parallels, especially the burning of body parts,” Chergoleishvili wrote. Chergoleishvili was afterwards depicted by Irakli Kobakhidze as the Georgian Eva Braun. “As for the attack on the US ambassador, the EU ambassador, it is not the fruit of the imagination of one problematic media owner, there is a concrete political force behind it. This person, who is the first speaker of these messages, Nika Gvaramia, is naturally one of the prominent leaders of this political force, the National Movement. But the main one behind this orchestrated, organised attack is the bankrupt politician Giga Bokeria; his ideas are being implemented by Nika Gvaramia and the entire active members of the [United] National Movement,” Kobahidze added.