Georgia’s new government will take “civilized” action to boost internal security and anti-crime efforts, Georgian Dream leader and future Prime Minister Bidzina Ivanishvili said on Wednesday.
“There will be no return of criminal bosses, no criminal gangs. And, unlike you, we will attain this goal by civilized means,” Ivanishvili told the minority bloc of supporters for Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili.
“We will not resort to the methods that you used to apply. Your methods were terrifying… You will see that maintaining law and order in a civilized way is possible,” he added.
The Georgian parliament met on Sunday for the first time since the October 1 election in which billionaire Ivanishvili's Georgian Dream coalition won a resounding victory.
Ivanishvili conceded that the previous government tackled corruption among the middle and lower classes, but said that it was rampant among the country’s elite.
“I disagree with the assertion that the human rights situation in Georgia has improved. The results were disastrous in reality, and your team tried to deceive the European institutions. In terms of human rights, the situation in Georgia was disastrous,” he added.
