President Giorgi Margvelashvili has welcomed GD ruling coalition’s decision to name Giorgi Kvirikashvili as PM-designate and expressed hope that the Parliament will confirm the nomination.

Kvirikashvili, who is now foreign minister, was nominated as next PM by the GD parliamentary majority group on December 25, to replace Irakli Garibashvili, who announced resignation on December 23.

The President said that he has already sent the nomination to the Parliament for confirmation – procedure, which is a formality and the President has no power under the constitution to decline the nomination offered by the largest political force in the Parliament.  

Margvelashvili, who has often been at odds with Garibashvili on various issues, said at a news conference few hours after Kvirikashvili was nominated: “Georgia needs a strong and efficient government. I supported resignation of the incumbent prime minister immediately and I also supported immediately nomination of Mr. Kvirikashvili.”

By “immediately” he was referring to the fact that the President did not use fully those seven days within which he could have sent a prime ministerial nomination to the Parliament for confirmation and finalized the procedure on the same day when the candidate was named by the parliamentary majority.

“I hope that the Georgian Parliament will confirm Mr. Kvirikashvili on the post of Prime Minister and I hope he will tackle efficiently and successfully very difficult tasks,” Margvelashvili said.