The “European Georgia” party lost its status as the parliamentary minority. This procedural change came into effect since MPs quit the Majority grouping.
According to the Parliament’s rules of procedure, the parliamentary minority may be set up by the factions and MPs affiliated with them, if their number exceeds a half of the total number of MPs currently outside the majority.
Presently, there are 42 lawmakers outside the parliamentary majority, meaning that at least 22 lawmakers are needed to set up the parliamentary minority. The “European Georgia” has only 19 MPs.
The Minority gets to nominate deputy chairs of parliamentary committees, and gets more airtime during the political debates than the ordinary factions.
MP Eka Beselia was the first to quit the ruling party. She was followed by MPs Levan Gogichaishvili, Beka Natsvlishvili, Gedevan Popkhadze and Zviad Kvachantiradze.
Two more lawmakers from Georgian Dream – Social-Democrats faction, Gia Zhorzholiani and Mirian Tsiklauri also announced about their decision to quit the majority on March 4. They will continue their parliamentary activities with the “Alliance of Patriots faction”.
To re-establish the Minority grouping, “European Georgia” may join forces with the United National Movement faction, which has six lawmakers in the Parliament. However, the leaders of “European Georgia” say no talks are currently under way.
“The minority status is not decisive for us. Our goal is to defeat the Georgian Dream. Dismantling the majority is more important for us than maintaining the minority status,” MP Davit Bakradze, one of the leaders of European Georgia said.
Another possibility is for the remaining factions – The Alliance of Patriots, the former members of the parliamentary majority and independent MPs to form the minority. However, currently they fall 5 mandates short. Eka Beselia hopes she could fill the gap. He was quoted saying “a new configuration is emerging in the Parliament and creation of the new minority is not ruled out.”
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