Georgian Dream party“Choose peace and not war” is the main message from Georgian Dream, the ruling party in Georgia for the past 12 years.
Russia’s war in Ukraine has been a major focus of the ruling party’s parliamentary election campaign, ahead of the Georgian people’s decisive vote on 26 October.
Billboards with pictures of bombed-out Ukrainian churches and swimming pools, burned buses and school classrooms are contrasted with peaceful pictures from Georgia.
The implication is that the opposition will drag Georgia into a Ukraine-style war, while the Georgian Dream can ensure peace.
It’s a powerful message for a country of 3.7 million people that borders Russia and experienced a brief, but devastating conflict with its neighbor in 2008.
The real threat, says the country’s opposition party, represented in the upcoming elections by several pro-Western coalitions, is the loss of Georgia’s democracy and once-in-a-lifetime chance to join the European Union.
Georgia received EU accession status in December 2023, but the European Union suspended the accession process due to increased anti-Western rhetoric by the Georgian Dream and the passing of a controversial “foreign influence” law in June 2024.
It was the law that brought tens of thousands of young Georgia protesters to the streets in the spring. The law requires foreign-funded media and public organizations to register as working for the benefit of a foreign country. The protesters see it as a threat to the country’s democracy and its future in Europe.
Critics say it was inspired by a Russian law used to quell dissent.
The most powerful man in Georgia, billionaire Bidzina Ivanishvili, has promised to shut down opposition parties if Georgian Dream wins. He founded the group and is currently the honorary chairman.
He unites all opposition parties as the United National Movement, or UNM, which is the name of Georgia’s main opposition party.
“Today, the united UNM with foreign support is trying to rule through riots and plunge this country into wars and chaos,” Ivanishvili told supporters in Batumi on October 10.
“This must end once and for all. That is why Georgia needs the ruling party to win a constitutional majority in the October 26 election.”
The danger of war and other “threats” are prominent in the pro-government media.
This includes the idea that Europe wants to make Georgian men gay, or that an army of “foreign agents” from the country’s civil society and liberal media are part of a Western “World War Group” conspiracy to foment revolution.
In the western city of Kutaisi, a crowd of several hundred supporters listen to Nika Gvaramia, of the opposition Coalition for Change, as he speaks on a stage lit by EU and Georgian flags on flat screens.
“Our future is in Europe,” he cries.
His coalition aims to attract Georgia’s Gen Z voters – the very people who came out in droves to protest the “foreign influence” law.
Leaving the stage, he told the BBC that the parliamentary elections are actually a referendum on Georgia’s European future.
“There is no kind of threat to peace in Georgia,” Gvaramia said. “That is Russian propaganda. The main point of our agenda is how to survive. How to save our country. That is a matter of Russia or Europe.”
The opposition is hoping that next week’s vote will bring Georgia’s first coalition government and end what they describe as “one-party rule” and the Georgian Dream.
But, with Bidzina Ivanishvili at the helm, Georgian Dream is confident of a crucial victory.
“We have reached the highest approval rating in history mainly because of two things. The first is that despite the challenges, peace is assured in our country. The second is the rapid economic growth in the last three to four years,” said Prime Minister Irakli Kobakhidze when he presented his party’s election program on October 7.
Instead, critics point to the number of Georgians who go abroad in search of work. According to official statistics, 243,000 have emigrated in 2023.
“If the economy is doing so well why are Georgians leaving the country?” asked Zviad Adzinbaia, senior fellow at the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University.
The opposition complained that the authorities did not set up enough polling stations outside Georgia to receive their votes.
The Central Election Commission announced last month that it will open 60 polling stations in 42 countries.
The EU, the US and the UK have all spoken out against the way the Georgian Dream is dragging their country, with talk of democratic backsliding and issues that only work for Russia.
On Tuesday, the UK suspended its annual security dialogue with Georgia, with its ambassador in Tbilisi voicing concerns over declining democracy and anti-Western rhetoric in the Georgian government.
The Kremlin insists it does not interfere in Georgia’s domestic affairs, saying the West is making “resolute efforts” to put pressure on the government.
However, beyond the big cities, it is not geopolitics that occupy most Georgians.
For months, Tamaz Neparidze, 66, and many others from Shukruti protested outside the parliament in Tbilisi, saying that their village on a hill above the town of Chiatura was collapsing due to the abundance of landmines.
They blamed the mining company and the government for their plight.
“I have lost everything I expected. I don’t think I will vote in this election, I don’t believe in it,” said Tamaz.
Source link