11:30 12.11.2016

Saakashvili: Poroshenko and me may discuss only early parliamentary elections

3 min read
Saakashvili: Poroshenko and me may discuss only early parliamentary elections

Former head of Odesa Regional State Administration Mikheil Saakashvili says he is not going to discuss any issues with Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko but early elections to the Verkhovna Rada.

"He [Poroshenko] had the chance to use me for genuine reforms in this country, but it turned out that reforms and his wellbeing somehow contradict each other. And I am here because, regardless of his will, I want to use my experience for real reforms and changes in Ukraine, to the benefit of Ukrainian citizens. And he is no boss to me now," Saakashvili said at a press conference in Kyiv on Friday.

Saakashvili said he will meet the president next time only when "there is a legal issue of changing power in Ukraine."

"I will come to him for procedures of changing power and calling new elections. I will come to Poroshenko when he is ready to call new elections to the Verkhovna Rada. Before this, there is not going to be a single meeting between him and me," Saakashvili said.

"With all my respect for the institution of presidency, and considering that I personally don't harbor any bad feelings toward him - moreover, I have warm feelings - but, unlike a lot of opposition leaders who regularly sneaked to the presidential office through the backdoor, which I know because I had an office there, there is no way for me there at this stage," he said.

"I will have a conversation with the people of Ukraine, with ordinary people who are suffering, among other things, from his policy," Saakashvili said.

He said Poroshenko had repeatedly offered him the office of prime minister and invited him to lead his political party.

"The Ukrainian president has repeatedly offered me the office of prime minister of Ukraine and has repeatedly proposed that I head his Solidarnist party over the past year that I've worked [as head of Odesa regional administration], starting from last summer. I refused not only to head his party, but I also didn't run on his party's ticket in Odesa region. This was my well-thought-out decision, and I did this because all these parties, especially those associated with the leadership and the president, are absolutely foul," he said.

Saakashvili said the current situation in Ukraine reminds him of the events in Georgia 15 years ago.

"I am feeling now in Ukraine like I did in Georgia in 2001. When I left the Shevardnadze government, I called for early elections. We ensured early presidential elections and changed the government at the time," he said.

At the same time, Saakashvili said he is not going to return to political activities in Georgia.

"A person cannot be in two fronts simultaneously. Certainly, I will be supporting my associates in Georgia, but I said clearly that, no matter how the elections end, I would not return to work there," he said.

The former Georgian president believes that, if he had been directly involved in the recent parliamentary elections in his country, the result would have been different.

"The elections were grossly rigged. When the Shevardnadze government had rigged the elections last time, I was there, and we defended our result. Now I wasn't there, and, unfortunately, they were unable to defend their result," Saakashvili said.

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