“The ‘Opposition Alliance’ remains as it was before. Of course, I cannot deny that there was a disagreement,” Nika Gvaramia, leader of the “Coalition for Change,” told journalists.

Asked whether the dispute with the “United National Movement” could lead to that party leaving the alliance, Gvaramia said that decision rests solely with the “United National Movement,” though he hopes it will not happen.

“When the alliance was being formed, naturally, no one expected things to be easy. I will also say that if unification did not take place in 2024, one of the reasons was precisely that this kind of confrontation and disagreement could have ended in electoral collapse. Now, this is only an internal dispute within the alliance, which does not significantly harm us as an alliance, but as an electoral subject during a campaign, it would have caused serious damage,” Gvaramia said.

Gvaramia also clarified that the opposition alliance did not issue a statement because of Mikheil Saakashvili’s criticism itself. According to him, the alliance considered that there had been a personal attack against Nika Melia.

“I remind everyone that when a party has a leader who is in prison, sensitivity is always high. If it had been said about us, I would not have considered it necessary to respond at all, especially to someone in detention. Nika Melia is not the same case—he is in prison, a political prisoner, and cannot defend himself from prison the way we—his party—can. We have a moral obligation, and we fulfilled it.

As for censorship, the alliance clearly stated that censorship is not and will not be our goal,” Gvaramia said.

On April 18, Mikheil Saakashvili published a statement on social media criticizing the opposition for lacking active communication with citizens in the regions. Parties within the opposition alliance responded with a special statement, noting that he was violating the alliance’s principles—cooperation, mutual respect, and refraining from attacks. This was followed by further critical statements from Saakashvili and some representatives of the “United National Movement.”