Day: June 4, 2024

Several major opposition groups have signed President Salome Zourabichvili’s ‘Georgian Charter’ — an agreement to support an interim government chosen by the president to push through EU reforms after October’s parliamentary elections.

On Monday, 17 opposition groups signed the Georgian Charter at the president’s residence, the Orbeliani Palace.

The Charter was also signed by five independent lawmakers.

The Charter, unveiled by Zourabichvili on 26 May as Georgia celebrated Independence Day, entails establishing an interim government should the opposition succeed in ousting the ruling Georgian Dream from power in October’s parliamentary elections.

The government would be composed of ‘professionals’ and the opposition would rescind a raft of legislation adopted by Georgian Dream that critics deem detrimental to Georgia’s Euro-Atlantic aspirations. The Charter provided a non-exhaustive list of legislation, including the foreign agent law and recent amendments to the tax code that would exempt offshore assets being brought to Georgia from taxes.

The Charter also requires the temporary government to implement institutional reforms, focusing on the separation of powers and strengthening democratic checks and balances. According to the plan, the temporary government would be expected to facilitate free and fair parliamentary elections the following year.

On Monday, the charter was signed by the United National Movement (UNM), Strategy Aghmashenebeli, Lelo, Girchi — More Freedom, Ahali, European Georgia, Citizens, Droa, the Republican Party, For the People, and others.

Hours after the ceremony, Zourabichvili reiterated that she would be ‘strict’ in overseeing that the terms of the document were respected in the event they win in the October elections. 

[Read more about Zourabichvili’s plans here: President Zourabichvili outlines plan for temporary government following elections]

Absent from the signing ceremony were the opposition Girchi — New Political Centre and the For Georgia parties.

Girchi stated it disapproved of most of the plan’s provisions. The party, which holds four seats in parliament, saw its founder and the face of the party, Zurab Girchi Japaridze, leave to form a new Girchi party in late 2020. Earlier this year, the party struck a deal with the ruling party to abolish gender quotas in parliament.

For Georgia, led by former Georgian Dream prime minister Giorgi Gakharia, criticised the charter’s focus on installing a provisional government, though they recommitted to supporting institutional reforms in a statement on Monday.

While signatories of the charter have agreed to support a government nominated by the president, it does not entail signing up to joint electoral lists.

There have been some expectations among observers for smaller parties to band together before the election to ensure they pass the 5% threshold to enter parliament.

As opposition leaders signed the Charter on Monday, Georgia’s former president and honourary chair of the UNM, Mikheil Saakashvili, urged his party to surrender half of its electoral lists to other opposition groups.

‘Restoring the European path’

After hosting opposition leaders in the Orbeliani Palace on Monday, Georgia’s president went on to criticise the ‘Russian law’ as well as other steps taken by Georgian Dream, including the offshore assets tax relief bill, which she described as an ‘entirely non-transparent bill that opens the country to various capital unknown to anybody’. 

Zourabichvili also reprimanded the ruling party for promoting Chinese investments in the Anaklia deep-sea port project, which she called a ‘stab [in the back]’ to Georgia’s Western partners.

She said that in her bid to unite the political spectrum around the Georgian Charter since February, she had also reached out to the ruling Georgian Dream party and their founder, Bidzina Ivanishvili. Zurabishvili claimed she received no response from him. 

She also said she had reached out to party chair Irakli Gharibashvili, who served as prime minister until late January. 

She said Gharibashvili had been playing a role ‘as if he was against the Russian law and is in this role before the foreigners, like “I’m a bit different from others” ’.

‘I’m not sure if this has anything to do with sanctions or not’, she said, adding ‘I did not hear back from him either’. 

Zourabishvili on the background of Georgian Dream leaders in May. Image: President’s office.

Zourabichvili stated that the Georgian Charter’s purpose was to put Georgia back on a pro-European path and save the country’s chances of opening EU accession negotiations, despite, as she noted, the current government’s poor performance in adhering to ‘at least a portion’ of the EU’s ‘nine priorities’ for reform. 

The president argued that soon after securing the membership candidacy last year, the government had doubled down on its anti-western rhetoric and enacted controversial legislation ‘contradicting’ the country’s EU membership aspirations. 

‘You can call it collaborationism or anything, up to you, but this is the other direction’, Zourabichvili said, adding that reactions from Russia had been amicable to the government’s U-turn. 

Several hours before Zourabichvili’s speech, Artem Turov, deputy chair of the Russian State Duma Committee on CIS issues, was the latest Russian official to compliment Georgian Dream. Turov hailed the Georgian government for taking ‘an important step to strengthen its sovereignty’ by enacting the foreign agent bill despite the criticism from the EU and the USA.

The post Major Georgian opposition groups sign President Zourabichvili’s charter appeared first on OC Media.

“Like being on stage at 78,” the Rolling Stones frontman, who has thrilled audiences for more than six decades, said a day after playing a packed show outside Boston.

“It took a couple of shows to get into the groove, but now we’re into it,” Jagger said. “I’m feeling good.”

He sang “What a drag it is getting old,” back in the 1960s. But Jagger, who turns 81 on July 26, is still having a blast and has no plans to stop rocking anytime soon.

Now swinging through the U.S. on the “Hackney Diamonds” tour, the group will look at opportunities to play in other countries next year, Jagger said in an interview.

“We’ll consider those offers, where we’re going to go and where it will be fun, you know?” he said. “It could be Europe, could be South America, could be anywhere.”

Jagger also said the Stones are likely to release more new music soon.  

The current tour is named for the critically praised album the Stones debuted last October, the first new material from the British rockers in 18 years.

At each stop, Jagger commands the stage for two hours with bandmates Keith Richards, 80, and Ronnie Wood, 77. Fans say Jagger still delivers a vigorous performance full of gyrating, stomping, sprinting and his world-famous swagger.

In a review titled “The Rolling Stones Really Might Never Stop,” the New York Times said Jagger, at a show at a football stadium in New Jersey, seemed to get more energetic as the night went on.

Where does he find such energy?

“I just enjoy it,” Jagger said. “Really, that’s the answer. I just love doing it.

“You get this back and forth with the audience. You can see they’re having a good time, you’re having a good time, and it gives you a lot more energy.”

Music legends may join Jagger

Jagger said he stays fit by doing two dance rehearsals and a few gym workouts each week. His father was a physical education teacher and Jagger has often credited his good health to genetics.

On the tour, the Stones play about four songs from “Hackney Diamonds” in between rock classics such as “Start Me Up,” “(I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction” and “Sympathy for the Devil.” The set list is tweaked for each stop.

Fans appear to have embraced the new music, Jagger said. He sees people in the crowd singing along to the words.

Coming up, Jagger said he hopes to be joined on stage by some of the music legends who made guest appearances on “Hackney Diamonds” – Paul McCartney, Lady Gaga, Stevie Wonder and Elton John – but said he does not yet have commitments. “It’s hard pinning them down,” he said.

The Stones recorded many songs that did not make it onto “Hackney Diamonds,” which may lead to another album, Jagger said.

“We’ve got a lot more, so I think we may be set up to make another album quite soon,” he said.

Outside of music, Jagger is producing a film about the love story between jazz musician Miles Davis and French actress and singer Juliette Greco, as well as a movie adaptation of “The Real Thing,” a play by British playwright Tom Stoppard.

Jagger has appeared on screen in about a dozen films and TV shows and said he would like to do more acting. “I don’t really get that many interesting offers, to be honest,” he said. “I enjoy doing it when I do it.”

Interest in U.S. elections

On the tour, the band asks ticket holders at each stop to vote on one song to be included in that night’s show. Boston fans chose 1980 track “Emotional Rescue” in the online poll, which had a turnout of roughly 80%.

Jagger used the moment to urge the audience to vote in the U.S. presidential election in November.

He did not say which candidate he preferred, but the band has threatened to sue likely Republican nominee Donald Trump if his campaign keeps playing the Stones hit “You Can’t Always Get What You Want” at events.

Jagger has made brief political jabs on stage and occasionally receives flack as a Brit commenting on American politics.

“First of all, I think everyone has a right to have an opinion,” Jagger said. “It’s a free country.”

“I feel like it’s such an important election,” he added.

“I’ve got seven children who are U.S. citizens. I care about what happens to their future. And I pay a lot of American taxes. So why shouldn’t I be able to say what I feel?”