Nika Melia leaves the United National Movement. He made the relevant statement a few minutes ago at the briefing.

“During the last 11 years, I have not stopped fighting against [Bidzina] Ivanishvili’s regime, because I believed and still believe that this Government is losing Georgia’s development prospects and taking away its future. The future that the country should have is much better than the present.

I fought from the rostrum of the Parliament, from the street, from international platforms and from the prison cell. I tried to be everywhere where people’s freedom was violated. In this process, I didn’t have any other political goal, except for the interest of the people and my country.

Over 11 years, we have a political climate in the country that is completely based only on money and informal interests, we have a rotten political system where honesty, decent, experienced people, youth, moral and sincere politics, idealists are not given a chance.

Bribery and political trade are the basis of Bidzina Ivanishvili’s politics, and unfortunately, these rules of the game have been accepted by not a small number of politicians.

They try to make immorality a political standard, a prerequisite for success in politics. Politicians who share this standard assure each other that they will achieve more by giving up principles than by sticking to principles, and then all such politicians try to convince people of this.

Today, many of you think in the city, in the village, on the street, in the store that “Bidzina Ivanishvili is not good, but you can’t defeat him, he is bad, but he has a lot of money, and you can’t defeat him”.

I believe that Ivanishvili can be defeated, but I don’t believe that money can be defeated with money, worthlessness with worthlessness, political corruption with political corruption, I don’t believe that political trade is defeated with political trade. I believe that in the fight against systemic evil, we need a clean past, reputation, knowledge, honesty, courage - this is a new way of winning, not engaging in political trades, these are my political ideals, this is my vision as a politician.

During the last months, I did my best to preserve these principles in the UNM, but I was not heard. A vicious circle has been created that takes into account the interest of everyone except the interest of the people. Staying in this vicious circle means renouncing truth, dignity, morality and the future of Georgia.

A large part of the political class believes that the main weapon of the struggle today is money, and I believe that the main weapon of the political struggle is the truth, the price of the word, sincerity.

Unfortunately, the UNM has also made informal management, behind-the-scenes influences, trade in politics and politicians, persecution of dissenting opinions, and closing the door to democracy into its political standard. People who got rich in politics turned this party into a narrow club movement

I know what is going on in your hearts, the same is going on in mine. If you have lost the confidence of the political class, I have also lost the confidence of a large part of the political class. Now I have two choices - either I act like most people, put on this mask and be a mask, or I can be completely honest, true to myself and to you. Either I have to accept the rules of the political corruption game or stay with the people and change the rules of the game together.

I am sure that the truth will always have more supporters than anyone can buy people. Righteous people are not for sale, and we must create space for them in politics. All people who will be in this struggle will make an individual decision dictated by conscience and we will be many, united by the value of the right people and move forward to the future and defeat Ivanishvili’s oligarchic rule.

So, I’m leaving, yes, I’m moving forward to the future and leaving the past in the past. The oligarchy in this country wants to write the history of Georgia, but the history of Georgia will be written by the Georgian people”, said Nika Melia.