Before we used to beg them to come to parliament, now they beg us - Kobakhidze

Before we used to beg them to come to the parliament, now they are begging us not to let them out of the parliament - this is how Kobakhidze, chairman of the party "Dream", says about the termination of the parliamentary mandate of the opposition MPs:

"It proves how difficult the situation is for the opposition. Georgian society has been discussing for over six months why the opposition should not enter the parliament and there has been a whole discussion about it. Now it's all turned upside down and they're talking about why they shouldn't end their parliamentary tenure. We used to beg them to come to parliament; now they are begging us not to let them leave parliament. Here's what's really going on: when parliament decides to terminate their mandate, that decision is made on some basis. When they protested against this decision, they should have remembered who missed the hearings, who committed crimes, who sabotaged, and so on. Of course, this is a reason to terminate the mandates," Kobakhidze said.

The demand to restore the lists, he said, confirms "what a difficult situation we have put the radical opposition in, and that is very good." Kobakhidze said the opposition's plight is "positive for the quality of Georgian democracy."

"The decision on three specific MPs also serves to calm the country and continue what we started last year, when we confronted political forces oriented toward confrontation and unrest," Irakli Kobakhidze said.