Davit Usupashvili (IPN)

Davit Usupashvili (IPN)

TBILISI, DFWatch–The Republican Party will remain in the Georgian Dream coalition, Speaker of Parliament Davit Usupashvili said Thursday after meeting Prime Minister Giorgi Kvirikashvili.

The reason for the meeting was a recent statement by the prime minister about the conflict between the Industrialists Party and the Republican Party, both members of the coalition. He called on the parties to discuss the conflict internally within the coalition and warned that otherwise he would carry out changes.

After meeting with the PM, Usupashvili told journalists that the Republican Party remains a strategic partner for the coalition and the party will soon sign a bipartisan cooperation document with the Georgian Dream party.

Usupashvili said the meeting was friendly and productive. He said that the bipartisan agreement will be aimed at enabling the coalition to fulfill its goals during the elections cycle and further in the future.

The speaker avoided commenting about the confrontation between the Republicans and Industrialists and didn’t make any predictions about the future cooperation of those two parties, but said that there is no chance that Defense Minister Tina Khidasheli will be dismissed.

The meeting lasted about one hour. Apart from Khidasheli herself, also the leader of the Republicans Khatuna Samnidze and the party’s political secretary MP Davit Berdzenishvili attended.