Saakashvili announces unification of the democratic forces of Ukraine
The ex-head of the Odessa regional state administration and leader of the New Forces Movement (Rukh Novyh Sil), Mikheil Saakashvili, has announced the unification of a number of democratic political forces, and predicts early elections in Ukraine in 2017.
He said this during a forum organized by the Volya party in Kyiv, reports Interfax-Ukraine.
"I think we will find a formula [for unification]; we need to unite all these people. It's ridiculous and untenable when they all individually hold frame ... The people must unite and within one force compete with each other ... You will see, in the near future there will be a big unification," he said.
According to Saakashvili, the matter concerns the unification of the political forces whose representatives took part in the forum – an initiative of New Forces Movement, Hvylya, the Demalyans party, Volya, and some other forces.
Speaking about the probability of early elections in Ukraine, the ex-head of the Odessa Regional State Administration admitted that such elections could occur as early as 2017.
"Given that we have zero economic growth this year, the government does not have a safety margin, and that there are many other unfavorable international factors. I think that in Ukraine the events will develop very quickly and in this year ... Everything will end with elections,” Saakashvili said.
The New Forces Movement was created as a social movement in November 2016. At the first rally of Rukh, Saakashvili demanded early elections to the Parliament per new electoral legislation, with a new composition of the Central Election Commission and the abolition of parliamentary immunity.
In the summer of 2016, Saakashvili's associates announced the establishment of the Hvylya party, but already in November Saakashvili stated that "there is no new ‘Hvylya’, as ‘Hvylya’ is a process. How can a process be called a party?”