Irakli Kobakhidze To Become Georgia's New Prime Minister
5- 2.02.2024, 2:07
- 9,374
No changes in politics are expected from him.
Chairman of the ruling Georgian Dream party Irakli Kobakhidze is presented as the next Prime Minister of Georgia. Kobakhidze, one of the key figures in the ruling party, is swapping places with his predecessor as prime minister Irakli Garibashvili, who has become the new chairman of the Georgian Dream, the ВВС reports.
The personnel decisions, which the ruling party calls historic and the opposition calls facade, were announced at the Georgian Dream congress on February 1.
The ruling party's extraordinary congress opened to the sound of the Georgian anthem. The founder and honorary chairman of the ruling party, Bidzina Ivanishvili, whom critics of the authorities accuse of running the country single-handedly and informally, was standing next to the future and already former prime minister. It was he who, according to the amended party charter, presented the candidate for prime minister to the party's political council.
Irakli Kobakhidze started his address in the rank of Prime Ministerial candidate by thanking and praising Ivanishvili. He called Ivanishvili an example of how to serve the country.
"In previous years, every member of the team contributed to the advancement of our country, but it must be said - the fact that Georgia today has democracy, peace, economic progress and the country has received the status of an EU candidate is first of all Ivanishvili's merit," Kobakhidze said.
Kobakhidze, 45, will be the seventh prime minister of the Georgian Dream, which has been in power in Georgia since autumn 2012. His predecessor Irakli Garibashvili was appointed to the post twice.
The reshuffle in the ruling team came a month after Ivanishvili returned to politics, becoming the ruling party's honorary chairman on December 30.
On the same day, changes were made to the party's charter, according to which it is he, the honorary chairman of the party, who submits the prime ministerial candidacy to the political council for approval.
