TBILISI, DFWatch–Members of Alasania’s political team are stepping down one by one as Foreign Affairs Minister Maia Panjikidze and four of her deputies resigned on Wednesday in the wake of the political turmoil that has brought Georgia’s ruling coalition on the verge of collapse.

Panjikidze announced her resignation at the briefing standing with her deputies, Davit Zalkaliani, Tamar Beruchashvili, and Vladimer Gurgenidze. Davit Jalaghania, another deputy, who is currently on a visit to Cuba, wasn’t present, yet he resigned as well.

Maia Panjikidze also said she was leaving the Georgian Dream coalition.

“We cannot betray the European choice of the Georgian people and not let them see through our resignation the threats which the country is challenged by today,” she remarked at a briefing held at the ministry.

“I’m not saying goodbye forever. I’m saying, we will meet soon,” Panjikidze said.

Commenting on the resignation, Prime Minister Irakli Garibashvili said Panjikidze expressed solidarity with her family, not with the state, referring to the fact that Maia Panjikidze is a sister of Irakli Alasania’s wife, Natia Panjikidze.

A session of the Georgian Dream coalition’s political council is to be held on Wednesday at 17 pm, where Alasania and his party will also appear. This meeting will decide whether Alasania’s Free Democrats Party leaves Georgian Dream coalition. If so, and that is most likely scenario, the GD coalition in the parliament may lose 10 MPs thus posing a threat to the very existence of the majority.

On Tuesday, Alasania’s another political ally, Minister of Euro and Euro Atlantic Integration, Alexi Petriasvhili, also resigned.