A “revolution of compromising material” instead of a Rose Revolution

The ultimatum given to Saakashvili by the "Alliance for Georgia" has passed. Since this deadline, the leader of the alliance, Irakli Alasania, has declared that they have decided to respond to "Saakashvili's cynical attitude towards democratic values" by organizing a plebiscite. At the same time, another coalition - the "United Opposition" - is already gathering signatures from among the people in support of the president's resignation. The authorities are expecting the following steps from opposition parties, who have still not learnt how to keep pace with each other.

The leader of the "Alliance for Georgia", Irakli Alasania, returned to Tbilisi from his European trip the day after the deadline by which time the ultimatum was meant to be acted upon, and told journalists at a press conference about his meetings in Brussels, so the GHN news agency reports. As far as the alliance's "post-ultimatum" plans are concerned, they do not contain anything unexpected. Alasania explained the authorities' refusal to hold a referendum on an early presidential election by pointing to "Saakashvili's inadequate perception of reality and his lack of political responsibility", and declared that a plebiscite would be held.

It is difficult to say how the collecting of signatures in support of Saakashvili's resignation started by the "United Opposition" on 4th March differs from the plebiscite announced by the alliance. Even Alasania's explanations haven't clarified the situation. "Collecting signatures among the population will only be one of the forms that the plebiscite will take. Then we will start to publicly monitor the state bodies," GHN quotes Alasania. At the same time, the plebiscite could turn into an action of indefinite length. "We are not restricting ourselves to any concrete time-frame for holding the plebiscite," noted another representative of the alliance, the Republican leader David Usuapashvili.

The leaders of the alliance are not against joining other opposition forces who supported the ultimatum put forward by the leader of the "Georgia's Way" party, Salome Zurabishvili. Hence, at the aforementioned press conference, Irakli Alasania affirmed: "The alliance will join the protest action planned for 9th April if an agreement is reached with political forces and the organizers of the rally over a joint action plan". It turns out that the eight parties which supported Zurabishvili's ultimatum do not have a joint action plan. Which means that the illness affecting the Georgian opposition, which has failed to unite over recent years, has turned into a chronic affliction. Therefore it's still difficult even to guess how events will unfold.

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