Translated material
Mikheil Saakashvili - The New Times
"Main minus: we failed to build good relations with Russia"
President-elect of Georgia Mikheil Saakashvili offered his opinion on the results of the elections in an interview with The New Times
Mikheil Saakashvili - Natalia Morari
If we talk about the past elections, then their result - both for Georgia and for us - is simply amazing, a stunning result. Many in my team were ready for the second round. Because there are a lot of candidates, almost all political forces have consolidated specifically for the second round. I took a very big risk when I called these elections. Many in my team predicted an imminent disaster, but this did not happen. I was sure of success, I was sure of the reasonableness of our citizens. Not everything was so smooth, but in the end there is a result. And most importantly, these were the most honest elections in the history of Georgia, everyone recognized this.
But the opposition...
This is a purely Georgian tradition - to dramatize the situation a little. This is a storm in a teacup. Nothing will happen. You saw how few people were at the rally the day after the elections, when the opposition called on its supporters to take to the streets. People tend to take part in the democratic process, but if they see that there is no injustice, then there is no reason to protest either, even if they do not like the result.
The day before the vote, you, speaking to voters, promised that if you were elected, you would hand over a united Georgia to the next president. That is, the issue with Abkhazia and South Ossetia will be resolved. Do you really believe that resolution of these conflicts is possible in the coming years? Are you ready for a military solution to these problems?
I'm quite sure it will. Nobody is interested in dividing Georgia. As for the power option, this is a purely theoretical thing. Power option against whom? Against 5-6 thousand Ossetians who live in Tskhinvali, who are our citizens? Or against 35,000-40,000 Abkhazians who, in principle, have no military force themselves? We just need to find a mutually acceptable political solution. Find a common language with Russia, because Russia is the main character here, and resolve these issues. I think that now we are entering a constructive era in our relations. I think that we should leave the old behind and start a new stage. It's stupid - what happened between us in recent years. We can achieve a better relationship.
If I may, let's go back to the events of two months ago, to the dispersal of the rally on November 7: all the world's media reported about it. Your image has been seriously damaged. I have a question for you as a president who has already won the election: today, now, do you think that you made a mistake then?
I think it was completely fair. We will never again allow anyone in Georgia to turn street skirmishes into a civil war, and Georgia will become the same normal country, and has become like all other normal countries, where you are punished for raising a hand against a policeman, and punished quite severely. This is how it happened, and this is how we will act in the future. We did not disperse a peaceful rally. We dispersed several thousand aggressive people who attacked the police. A peaceful rally took place a few days before that, and no one even thought of attacking him, but in general we ensured his safety in every possible way.
The elections were absolutely legitimate. And this decision was not connected with the November events. This was due to the reforms that we have carried out over the past four years. It was necessary to ask people if they want to continue the reform, or if they want to return to the past, or go to some indefinite plane. The reforms were very painful, very radical. They really changed Georgia for the better, but some people suffered from these reforms and were dissatisfied. To continue the reforms, it was necessary to obtain a new democratic mandate. Not a single president and nowhere reduces his term, determined by the Constitution, by a year and a half. I went for it and did it quite deliberately. Because I think that the next five years will be decisive for Georgia. Even without the events of November 7, something was still brewing. Maybe not in this form, but in principle we felt that an update was needed, that something new was needed for our society. We had to prove that everything we do is not done for the power of some president, but for the protection of democracy, for the Georgian institutions of statehood. We have proven it. And I think that this is a day that will remain in the history of Georgia.
Opposition representatives accuse you of having chosen January 5 as the date of voting, in fact, you have deprived them of the chance to conduct a normal campaign.
I could call elections in a year and a half, and people would forget the names of many of them (opposition leaders. - The New Times). So of course it's not fair.
In November, the opposition's main demand was to postpone the parliamentary elections until spring. In a referendum on January 5, citizens supported this proposal. Maybe it was worth not pushing it to the brink and then, in November, to start negotiations with the opposition?
Hard to say. We did not want to postpone the elections until the spring. They wanted the presidential and parliamentary elections to be held simultaneously. But when I realized that there was a critical attitude in society, I postponed the presidential elections, and since the presidential elections were postponed, there was no point in keeping the parliamentary elections. In reality, the presidential elections decided many things - for the economy, for development, for future improvement. It's the presidential election.
Many call your main opponent not even Levan Gachechiladze, who scored more than the rest of the opposition candidates, but Badri Patarkatsishvili.
Badri Patarkatsishvili is suspected of preparing a coup and killings. Naturally, any country and any legal system will defend itself and require some action in such cases. Evidence of his illegal activities has been made public. They were shown on television. I think it's very, very serious.
A related question: what will be the next steps towards former Defense Minister Irakli Okruashvili?
Before that, he was in Germany for a couple of months, now, as far as I understand, he is in France. He is being sought and suspected of embezzling several tens of millions of dollars. As far as I know, the evidence is very strong. Our prosecutor's office is seeking his extradition. For me, this policy no longer exists.
The opposition promises to bring people to the streets on January 13. Do you allow a repetition of the scenario on November 7th?
November 7, too, nothing special happened. If there is a violation of the order, appropriate measures will be taken. This is no longer my area of expertise.
Before the elections, you also announced major changes in the government that will take place if you win. Which block will these changes affect in the first place - the power, economic, social? Is it possible for someone from the opposition to appear in the government?
Everyone. But I can't say for personalities yet. These decisions will be based on who is less popular, who is more popular, who is better, who is worse. This is the only criterion. As for the oppositionists, if among them there is a worthy candidate who will be considered not on a party basis, not from a coalition cabinet, but on an individual basis, this is possible.
Taking into account your result - 52% and the result of the opposition, which in total gained 43%, many experts say that in the spring parliamentary elections your party "United National Movement" may not get a parliamentary majority.
I am absolutely sure that we will get the majority. But it's too early to talk about it right now. There will be a completely different configuration. If these elections were tomorrow, then we would have received a majority. But the elections are only in four months, we have to wait.
What do you think, those people who go to opposition rallies, who are they?
These are tens of thousands of people, many of whom have been disenfranchised. These are people who lived, for example, smuggling, corruption. These are the people who have suffered from rising prices. These are people whose relatives are in prison for some crimes. These are people who are simply tired of us. who don't love us. But I think it's still not the majority of society, and these elections were designed to show who really supports whom. I got twice as much as the nearest competitor. All. That says it all. As soon as doubts arose and the suspicion that we were no longer supported, I turned to the people for support and received this support. This is democracy.
OSCE representatives recognized these elections as the freest in the history of Georgia, but many observers note that the administrative resource was used. Two thousand buses that are now driving around Tbilisi with your photos, a huge number of billboards ... in the absence of the same advertising of opposition candidates.
The opposition decided not to buy these billboards - there are a lot of free billboards and a lot of free buses in Georgia. This is not an administrative resource. This is a financial resource, and they spent their financial resource differently. We are reproached for raising pensions before the elections and building roads to rural areas. In the same way, elections are won in America, in the state of Iowa and in Chicago. So we will use all the same methods that are in democratic countries. We also traveled somewhere, we also saw something, and there is nothing to reproach us here for the fact that they are completely normal. We will be a normal democracy and will not be a laboratory for anyone.
And the last question. How do you yourself assess your first term as president? What worked, what didn't?
I think that Georgia's success as a state is a very serious thing, because we were not a state, and no one expected that we would ever become a state. Probably the most important disadvantage is in foreign policy. We have not been able to build good relations with Russia.