United National Movement (UNM) opposition party said on Saturday it will hold a protest rally in Tbilisi on March 21 to demand resignation of the government.

The announcement was made after Parliament failed to hold a special session due to lack of quorum as lawmakers from the Georgian Dream parliamentary majority group boycotted it. UNM wanted special session of the parliament to debate on economic situation, amid depreciated national currency lari.
 
“The government and [GD] parliamentary majority acted completely irresponsibly and did not show up,” MP Zurab Japaridze, executive secretary of UNM, said, while announcing about the planned protest rally.

Standing alongside with other UNM lawmakers in the Parliament in Kutaisi, MP Japaridze said that the Georgian economy “is on the verge of collapse” and “depreciation of lari damaged each family.”

“The government is inactive; it has no clear-cut plan on how to get the country out of this crisis, moreover it is refusing to even discuss our anti-crisis plan,” he said, referring to UNM’s proposal, which, among others, also includes call for cut of tax rates.

“The government no longer listens to the people, so our duty as of the opposition is to make the government hear people’s voice. As far as it did not happen here [in the Parliament chamber] today, it will happen in the capital city Tbilisi on the Rustaveli Avenue,” he said.

“We call on every citizen of Georgia, who feels insulted and deceived by this government, who thinks that this government is incapable of doing something, to gather on Rustaveli Avenue on March 21 and to demand resignation of Georgia’s incapable government. We are waiting for you in Tbilisi on Rustaveli Avenue on March 21,” he said.