Addressing the public in from the heights of Bagrati Cathedral Georgia’s incumbent president Saakashvili called for national unity to be reached and preserved via upcoming parliamentary election of October 1. During the address Saakashvili touched upon several issues debated during the pre-election period calling for various sides of the debate to never forget about the importance of the idea of unity. As civil.ge reports in his televised address President Saakashvili said it was Georgian democracy’s gain that political parties “have unrestricted possibility” to run a campaign ahead of the October 1 parliamentary elections. Commenting on other gains of democracy Saakashvili noted in particularly that:
“It is also a democratic gain that views of political parties’ drastically differ from each other; they may categorically disagree on which direction we should guide the country, but unfortunately, in this pre-election period we are often witnessing that people involved in politics, instead of [having] struggle of ideas and healthy polemics, are often using the spiteful and intolerant language. Often they leave an impression as if they are not the children of the same nation, but sworn enemies. Unfortunately, some politicians, wittingly or unwittingly, put personal political success above the country’s success. We may have differing visions on economy, but we cannot but be united by a goal to never return our country back into the swamp of corruption. We may have differing visions about our security policy, but we cannot but be united by a common will to never cede our country to ‘thieves in law’ and organized criminal groups. We may have differing visions about Georgia’s foreign policy, but we cannot but be united by our common aspiration to reach de-occupation and unification of our country.”
