Giorgi Gambashidze, Deputy Chairman of Lagodekhi local Council [Sakrebulo] from the Georgian Dream [GD], Nika Samkharadze and Omar Jikhvashvili, Deputy Chairmen of GD factions in Chiatura local Council and Terjola local Council, and Saba Kbilashvili, Deputy Chairman of Akhaltsikhe local Council, left the ruling party and their posts.

Gambashidze was the first to resign citing a desire to “speak more freely” in a Facebook post that staunchly criticized U.S. Ambassador to Georgia for assessing former ruling party MP Mikheil Kavelashvili’s recent letter to be “full of lies and conspiracy theories”: “It does not fit in my Georgian dream that a representative of the main friendly country in our nation does not even finish reading the letter addressed to her and insults Kavelashvili, a member of the Parliament. For me personally, this is alarming news and a red line”.

Samkharadze followed suit and repeated the narrative, “There are many things that can be said directly, which will ensure that real friends do not talk to us like representatives of the [Central Committee of the Communist Party]”.

Jikhvashvili expressed disbelief in his resignation that “[Georgia’s] close friends and partners across the ocean would like the actions of their representative in Georgia when instead of answering questions and distancing herself from calls for war, she insults the member of Parliament who dared to write her a letter”.

Kiblashvili was the last to declare his intention to join Gambashidze’s call for others to resign: “Someone must take it upon themselves to tell the simple but hard to say truth”.