Granted, after seeing many of their members jailed or interrogated, nobody expected the opposition United National Movement to give Georgia's 31-year-old nominee prime-minister, Irakli Gharibashvili, a pat on the back at his confirmation hearings. But the two-hour hair-pulling match that occurred on November 19 suggested that, even with the end of "cohabitation," the chances for grown-up political rivalry are as scant as ever.
In an exchange that rarely subsided below shouting and provided few answers about future policy plans, Gharibashvili, the outgoing interior minister, described the UNM as “neo-fascist” and “liars,” while his opponents described him as “irresponsible” and requested that he “watch his mouth.”
“Where do you think you are?” simmered the UNM's Giorgi Baramidze, a former State Minister for European Integration, news services reported. “This is parliament, not a circus!”
But, in fact, it looked more like a frat-house brawl.
Claiming that the UNM never stood up to its leader, ex-President Mikheil Saakashvili. Gharibashvili charged, in reference to the 2012 prison-abuse scandal, that “You were afraid because you knew people were raped in prisons with brooms and truncheons."
“When did you stand up to Ivanishvili?” countered Baramidze, going on to invite Gharibashvili to take the confrontation outside.
Gharibashvili largely dismissed questions about his plans to revive Georgia's stagnant economy -- growth stands at a mere 2.5 percent for 2013, according to the International Monetary Fund -- saying he will not accept criticism from people who, in his words, ruined the Georgian economy.
He similarly brushed off as "boring" and not "serious" questions about whether or not, as interior minister, he had hired his relatives. (In fact, a cousin by marriage runs the ministry's internal investigations. Gharibashvili's father-in-law, Tamaz Tamazashvili, was a regional police chief jailed under Saakashvili.)
For his part, Gharibashvili's proposed successor as interior minister, Tbilisi police chief Levan Tchikaidze added that if his own friends and relatives have the necessary abilities, he sees no reason not to hire them -- a pledge seemingly at odds with the Georgian Dream's declarations that its government, unlike that of ex-President Saakashvili, will not be about cozy cliques.
But Gharibashvili, whose entire professional career has occurred under Ivanishvili's aegis, knows the value of friends. He said he will continue to seek advice from his longtime patron; precisely the role that already has caused concern for some observers.
And then there were the sensational counter-accusations. Among other charges against the UNM, including terrorism, Gharibashvili claimed that hundreds of Georgians had disappeared under Saakashvili, and that some were executed. He did not present proof to support his allegations about the supposed disappearances.
But Gharibashvili's style of responding to criticism is not expected to cost him dearly. With the Georgian Dream holding the parliamentary majority, no obstacles are expected for the November 20 confirmation vote on Gharibashvili and his proposed cabinet. With the exception of the interior minister, the proposed cabinet remains exactly the same as under Ivanishvili.
Yet if yesterday’s hearing is any indication, Georgians should not expect restraint, dialogue and forward-thinking – rare commodities enough during the Saakashvili years – to become the hallmarks of a new political era.
Giorgi Lomsadze is a journalist based in Tbilisi, and author of Tamada Tales.
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