The ruling party has fulfilled the pledged to make the decision on the Bill on the basis of the wide consensus. “I would like to thank His Holiness, the members of the Holy Synod for the meeting and blessing. We discussed the range of issues the Church expresses interest in. The main point we had in the agenda was the Bill on Cultivation of Cannabis. We discussed it within the team and at the meeting yesterday attended by the Presidential candidate, Salome Zurabishvili. We made the decision to recall the Bill. As you know, the team had the dissent but we initially stated that any decision regarding the Bill would be made on the basis of the wide consensus with the society and the Church. We have fulfilled our pledge. We discussed the terms but yesterday, Mme. Zurabishvili especially expressed her principal position deriving from the attitude of the society about inexpediency of postponement of this decision. Thus, we made the prompt decision”.
He underlined that the team considered the position of other confessions and the society. “We have considered the position of the Church, as well as of other confessions and the society in general and we will endorse this principal decision at the nearest Governmental sitting as it is impossible in technical terms to do it today, though the decision will be made next week”.
In response to the question whether recall has anything to do with the Presidential elections, the Speaker stated that the ruling party has initially pledged to make this decision on wide consensus.
"The elections also revealed the additional attitude of the society and it also served the basis for our decision. We have initially made the decision about wide consensus, though it is also connected with the elections, namely: when Mme. Zurabishvili spoke about her position yesterday, she substantiated her position with the meetings she held in the regions during her pre-election campaign. Correspondingly, the elections also served the additional message about the attitude of the society. We have once again proved unlike the preceding Government that we are the Government with particular responsibility towards the attitude of the society and it served the precondition for our decision”.
