Ivanishvili promises crackdown on opposition after elections

Georgian Dream founder Bidzina Ivanishvili has threatened legal sanctions against opposition to the ruling party at a ceremony opening the party’s new HQ and announcing the beginning of their election campaign.

‘To ensure the steady development of the country, it is essential to hold the collective National Movement fully accountable in front of the Georgian people and the law’, Georgian Dream’s billionaire founder said in a rare public appearance on Tuesday evening.

The party has used the term ‘collective National Movement’ to conflate the formerly ruling United National Movement party and other pro-Western opposition parties in the country.

During his speech, Ivanishvili named Nika Gvaramia and Giga Bokeria, both former UNM officials who have gone on to launch their own opposition parties, as being part of the ‘collective National Movement’.

He also named several political opponents with no connection to the UNM. These included Lelo party leader Mamuka Khazaradze, Georgian President Salome Zourabichvili, who was elected with Georgian Dream’s support, and former Georgian Dream Prime Minister Giorgi Gakharia, who now heads the opposition For Georgia party.

‘After the elections, [the collective national movement] will have to answer for all the crimes they committed while in power, especially for carrying out the order in 2008 [Georgian-Russian war] and involving the country in the war, which cost our country the temporary loss of two historical regions’, he said.

During his speech, Ivanishvili and others repeatedly referred to opposition leaders as being ‘homeland-less’, while claiming they were serving foreign powers.

Ivanishvili has previously made a similar threat. On 29 April, he said that after October’s parliamentary elections, the reelected government would ‘be able to deliver a strict political and legal verdict to the collective National Movement’.

Ivanishvili’s threats to stifle the opposition were repeated at Tuesday’s event by Georgian Dream chair and former prime minister Irakli Gharibashvili.

‘Today, the artificially divided collective National Movement — the party of war and chaos — again claims it is returning to power’, he said. ‘At this time, we should prevent such evil not only to return to power, but also to remain in politics’.

‘Today, a choice will be made between war and peace, the party of war and the party of peace, a development-oriented political force that pursues the national interest, and an evil force of war and chaos that pursues the interests of foreign countries’, Gharibashvili said.

Tuesday’s event saw other leading members of the ruling party take to the stage including Tbilisi mayor and Georgian Dream’s general secretary Kakha Kaladze, parliamentary majority leader Mamuka Mdinaradze, Parliament chair Shalva Papuashvili, Prime Minister Irakli Kobakhidze.

The event was also attended by several dozen celebrities, including singers, actors, and athletes.

In addition to criticising and threatening the opposition, party leaders also spoke about the war in Ukraine, Georgia’s relations with the US and EU, China, and the ‘Global War Party’ —a conspiracy theory invented by Georgian Dream alleging that a secret cabal is controlling the West and attempting to sow war globally.

The party announced they were beginning their election campaign under the slogan ‘to Europe only with peace, dignity, and prosperity’.

Prime Minister Irakli Kobakhidze said that 12 years after the party was founded, Georgian Dream ‘will have its own, modern office, which is a sure sign that we are not going to lose any election for at least another 12 years’.

Parliamentary elections in Georgia are scheduled for 26 October, with the official campaign period kicking off on 28 August.

The speeches by ruling party officials drew widespread condemnation from across the opposition spectrum.

Mikheil Daushvili, a member of Giorgi Gakharia’s For Georgia party, said the event was ‘a futile attempt to scare citizens with war’.

Paata Manjgaladze, an MP from the Strategy Agmashenebeli party, called the event and speeches by top officials Georgian Dream’s ‘funeral’, adding that Ivanishvili’s comments were designed to create ‘tension and controversy’.

A confused foreign policy message

During the event, party leaders oscillated between criticising the West and insisting it was under the control of the ‘Global War Party’ and insisting Georgia maintained good relations with Western countries and was on course to join the EU.

Ivanishvili said, that the Global War Party had ‘significant influence over today’s US and European bureaucracy’.

He said this led to a perception among the Georgian public that Georgia was in conflict with the US and EU. 

‘However, once the war in Ukraine ends, interests will change and this perception will disappear instantly’, he suggested, adding that the war would end in a year and ‘all misunderstandings with US and Europe will immediately become a thing of the past’.

He said the party needed ‘a solid win, equivalent to a constitutional majority in this elections to once and for all end the Global War Party, [foreign] agency, radicalism, polarisation. and liberal fascism in Georgia’. According to him, all this was a necessary condition for the country’s accession to  the European Union.

Speaking at the event, Kobakhidze repeated the party’s suggestions that the West had backed attempts to overthrow the Georgian government. ‘In 2021, the country went through the first attempt at revolution. With the start of the war in Ukraine, unprecedented pressure on the country began, which led to a second attempt at a revolution in June 2022’, he said.

‘Due to the efforts of the Global War Party, Georgia was completely unfairly denied the status of candidate for membership of the European Union, thus, the country lived in an artificially created so-called polarisation regime for a year and a half.’

Kobakhdze added that despite this, ‘the government maintained peace, ensured an unprecedentedly fast growth of the economy, and received the status of a candidate for EU membership’.

During the event, the party’s parliamentary leader, Mamuka Mdinaradze, announced that Georgian Dream and its offshoot, People’s Power, would run under one party during the election.

MPs from People’s Power split from Georgian Dream in 2022, according to them in order to be more free to criticise the West. They have since sat as part of the parliamentary majority, with many of their initiatives and talking points later being taken up formally by the ruling party.

Ivanishvili also dedicated a portion of his speech to thanking the Chinese authorities for showing ‘special support to Georgia’. He said that deepening cooperation with China was not an alternative to cooperation with the US or EU, but was complimentary. 

As Georgian officials have grown increasingly hostile to the US and EU in recent years, the country has courted closer political and economic links with China.

[Read more: Georgia seeks closer ties with China]

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