Saakashvili reiterated on November 22, that “the first session of the Georgian Parliament will open in new building” of the legislative body in the country’s second-largest city of Kutaisi on May 26, 2012.

“The Parliament of Georgia will be fully relocated to Kutaisi and this will be the only place, where the Georgian Parliament will be located. On May 26, next year, the first session of the Georgian Parliament will be opened in the new building, which, you know, is under construction now in… Kutaisi. Relocation of the Parliament is important not only for Kutaisi, but it is also very important for Tskaltubo, Bagdadi, Vani, Khoni [towns of western regions of Imereti] and for the entire Imereti, the entire western Georgia and certainly for the entire Georgia,” Saakashvili said while visiting Kutaisi on November 22.

After listing several periods in Georgia’s history when Kutaisi served as the major city of the country and its capital, Saakashvili said that Kutaisi’s “new history starts now in the 21st century… by becoming Georgia’s political-administrative center and the second capital.”

“I want to bluntly tell all those figures, both politicians and non-politicians – those, who do not understand Kutaisi’s historical and political significance, they do not understand Georgia at all. Those, who do not understand, why we are relocating parliament to Kutaisi, they oppose the logic of Georgia’s reunification, Georgia’s development, Georgia’s European choice, and generally Georgia’s future. And of course, they do not understand our history and the significance of Kutaisi for united Georgia,” Saakashvili said.

“This is not only the return of historic function to Kutaisi, but return of historic function to the city which for each and every Georgian is an embodiment of united, strong Georgia – that is Georgia of Davit the Builder [the King who reunited Georgia in the twelfth century],” Saakashvili said, adding that combined with development of infrastructure in the city, the entire western Georgia “gains logic of development and significant stimulus for development.”