Georgian Dream

The party evolved from the public movement Georgian Dream, launched by Ivanishvili as a platform for his political activities in December 2011. Since Ivanishvili was not a Georgian citizen at the moment of the party's inaugural session, the lawyer Manana Kobakhidze was elected as an interim, nominal chairman of the Georgian Dream – Democratic Georgia. The party also includes several notable Georgians such as the former diplomat Tedo Japaridze, chess grandmaster Zurab Azmaiparashvili, security commentator Irakli Sesiashvili, writer Guram Odisharia and famed footballer Kakha Kaladze.[9][10]

United National Movement of Mikheil Saakashvili, which ruled Georgia for a decade before the creation of Georgia Dream, suffered several blows to its reputation. The UNM, known for its neoliberal economic policy, extremely punitive criminal justice system and confrontational approach to Russia, became increasingly unpopular prior to 2012 parliamentary elections. The regime was described as "an extremely punitive and abusive criminal justice, law-and-order system, which ended up with the highest per capita prison population in Europe – even higher than in Russia – in which torture became absolutely routine... Almost zero acquittal cases in criminal trials, mass surveillance, telephone tapping, and a lot of pressure put on businessmen, including intimidation, so they contribute to government projects."[11] The events such as violent dispersal of 2007 and 2011 Georgian demonstrations, 2012 Gldani prison scandal involving revelations about systemic torture of inmates in Georgian prisons, 2006 Sandro Girgvliani murder case and loss of territories in 2008 Russo-Georgian War contributed to the party's increasing loss of support among general population. However, before Georgian Dream, no other party managed to unite opposition and mobilize popular support. In April 2012, Georgian Dream became a political party, and staged several mass demonstrations against the Saakashvili government. On 21 February 2012, Ivanishvili announced a coalition by the name of Georgian Dream, composed of his planned political party of the same name, the Republican Party of Georgia, Our Georgia – Free Democrats, and the National Forum. Bidzina Ivanishvili, a businessman primarily known for charity and his vast contributions to public projects, became a leader of the united opposition movement. The Georgian Dream successfully challenged the ruling United National Movement (UNM) in the 2012 parliamentary election, pledging to increase welfare spending and pursue a more pragmatic foreign policy with Russia.[9][12] It won this election in coalition with six other opposition parties, with 54.97% of the vote, being allotted 85 seats in parliament.[8] The governing UNM took 40.34%. President Mikheil Saakashvili conceded that his party lost, and pledged to support the constitutional process of forming a new government.[13]

On 25 October 2012, Bidzina Ivanishvili was elected as the prime minister of Georgia. During this period, the State Universal Healthcare Program came into force (making emergency surgeries and childbirth free of charge), the reform of the system of self-governance was initiated and the project on saving agriculture was developed. In November 2013, Ivanishvili voluntarily stepped down as prime minister after just 13 months in office, saying that he was quitting the political arena.

In October 2013, Giorgi Margvelashvili, a member of the Georgian Dream party, won the presidential election, gaining 61.12% of the vote.[14] He succeeded President Mikheil Saakashvili, who had served the maximum two terms since coming to power in the bloodless 2003 "Rose Revolution".

In April 2018 senior MP Gedevan Popkhadze threatened to quit the party for its endorsement of an opposition-nominated candidate, journalist Ninia Kakabadze to the supervisory board of the Georgian Public Broadcaster.[15] Popkhadze criticized Kakabadze for being anti-religious. The incident is seen as an internal conflict between long-time GD members which joined the party while it was in opposition and a new group of members who were installed in high positions prior to the 2016 parliamentary elections. The news agency Democracy and Freedom Watch related the incident to the return of Bidzina Ivanishvili as chairman of the party later that month, which furthermore was perceived as a move to maintain the unity of the coalition.[16]

In August 2018, Irakli Kobakhidze announced that the party would not nominate a candidate for the 2018 presidential elections. Instead it would support the independent candidate Salome Zourabichvili.

In late 2019, Facebook publicly announced that it removed from Facebook and Instagram a number of accounts and pages engaged in coordinated inauthentic behavior that sought to promote the Georgian Dream government.[17] Analysts said that although Georgian Dream suffered a dip in popularity in the aftermath of the 2019 Georgian protests,[18][19][20][21] its relatively successful handling of the COVID-19 pandemic led to a boost in popularity, which helped it to secure victory in the 2020 parliamentary election. However, accusations of electoral fraud by the Georgian opposition subsequently led to the six-month political crisis in Georgia.[22]

On 11 January 2021, shortly after the election, Ivanishvili announced that he was decisively leaving politics and resigned as Chairman of Georgian Dream, stating that "he had accomplished his goal". Irakli Kobakhidze was elected as a new chairman of the party.[23]

In February 2021, the Georgian Dream underwent split following Giorgi Gakharia's unexpected resignation from the post of Prime Minister of Georgia. Gakharia cited disagreement with his party colleagues over enforcing an arrest order for Nika Melia, who was sent to pre-trial detention by the Court after he declined to pay bail. Melia, chairman of the opposition United National Movement party, was accused of organizing mass violence during the anti-government protests in 2019. Although Gakharia agreed that Melia's prosecution was lawful, he wanted to postpone Melia's arrest to avoid further political tensions between the government and the opposition. Gakharia also said that he no longer agreed with the positions of the Georgian Dream and he therefore was leaving the party.[24] Several MPs from Georgian Dream joined him to form a new party For Georgia.[25] The Georgian Dream party supported Irakli Garibashvili to replace Gakharia, and the Parliament voted 89–2 to appoint him as the next prime minister. Garibashvili had an earlier term as prime minister in 2013–2015.

Even though the government and the opposition worked to bring an end to the political crisis in April 2021, the tensions remained high. In tense 2021 Georgian local elections, the Georgian Dream managed to secure victory, gaining 46.75% of the vote. The mayoral candidates of the Georgian Dream won in all municipalities except Tsalenjikha. However, the party lost majority in seven out of 64 municipal assemblies.[26]

During the 2022 Russo-Ukrainian War, the Georgian Dream government has provided humanitarian assistance to Ukraine and sheltered Ukrainian refugees, while supporting Ukraine at diplomatic forum. However, it did not join financial and economic sanctions imposed on Russia by several Western countries and did not provide military assistance to Ukraine. Nikoloz Samkharadze, Chair of Foreign Relations Committee of Georgian Parliament in interview to Vice stated that "Georgia is the most exposed country in the world to the Russian aggression. The Russian troops are stationed 30 kilometers away from where we are sitting right now, from the heart of the Tbilisi. So, in this circumstances, I think Georgia is punching above its weight when it supports Ukraine at diplomatic forum, politically and also in humanitarian dimension".

On 25 February, 2022, Prime Minister Irakli Garibashvili said that Georgia would not join sanctions against Russia due to pragmatic considerations, as doing so would hurt the country's economy and might lead to escalation and war with Russia. The relations with the political leadership of the European Union worsened in the following months. In June 2022, the European Parliament adopted a six-page resolution calling the European Council to impose personal sanctions on the founder of the Georgian Dream party Bidzina Ivanishvili, accusing him of "determining the position of the current Government of Georgia towards sanctions on Russia". In August 2022, several MPs left Georgian Dream to establish the People's Power movement, with a goal of speaking more openly about the European Union's involvement in the Georgian politics. The movement accused the European Union and the United States of America of violating Georgia's sovereignty and pressuring Georgia to open "second front" against Russia. According to the movement, a number of Georgian political parties (including the largest opposition party, United National Movement) and NGOs are "American agents" who work to overthrow the Government of Georgia and drag the country into the Russo-Ukrainian War.

In October 2022, the Georgian Dream lost parliamentary majority as a result of defections. The People's Power said that it would still support the current government, while the Georgian Dream chairperson Irakli Kobakhidze pledged to cooperate with People's Power on key issues.[27][28][29] In March 2023, the Georgian Dream supported a draft foreign agent law presented by the People's Power movement, which would have labeled civil society and media organizations which receive more than 20% of their total revenue from abroad as "foreign agents". The draft law was criticized by the US State Department, United Nations and European Union. The proposed law caused the 2023 Georgian protests, due to which the parliament suspended further discussions of the bill.[30]

On 11 May 2023, the GD announced it was disaffiliating from the Party of European Socialists, pre-empting possible expulsion. The controversy followed the participation of the Georgian Prime Minister Irakli Garibashvili in the Conservative Political Action Conference in Hungary, which was criticized by PES.[31]

Like many parties of power, Georgian Dream lacks a clear ideology. The reasons that were given for this range from the party's history as an all-encompassing front of diverse parties opposed to the United National Movement government to the standard opportunism associated with such parties. Levan Lortkipanidze, a political science student at Tbilisi State University, described it as "a party of nomenclature, public servants, 'intelligentsia', medium and large businessmen, and technocrats – a party, which is held together through loyalty to its charismatic leader and the opposition to the government of the 'Rose Revolution.'"[32]

The party has at times self-identified as social democratic. According to the Georgian Institute of Politics, Georgian Dream's economic policy comprises a combination of the pre-existing free market model, created by their predecessors, with a comprehensive centre-left safety net.[33] Its social democratic policies include the introduction of universal healthcare system and a new labour code. However, the party has also professed commitment to "economic openness" and "market-driven growth", implementing both social democratic and neoliberal policies. Due to this, it has been reported that a number of left-wing activists view the party as "ideologically amorphous".[34]

In 2017, the Georgian Dream-led parliament implemented a major constitutional reform. A new constitution made Georgia a parliamentary republic, transitioned Georgia's parliamentary elections to a fully proportional system by 2024 and abolished direct presidential elections. It also contained a number of ideologically diverse provisions. The new amendments adopted several national conservative articles, including a ban on the purchase of agricultural land by foreign nationals and a constitutional ban on same-sex marriage.[35] They also adopted several social democratic articles, such as a new article about "social state", which enshrined a number of socio-economic rights in matters of health care, education, employment, and social security. The article also postulated that "the state should take care of strengthening social justice, social equality and social solidarity in the society".[36] The Georgian Dream deputies also supported removing from the constitution a ban on progressive taxes and a requirement to hold referenda to raise corporate and income tax rates, provisions implemented by the former governing United National Movement party of Mikheil Saakashvili. This proposal caused protests from the opposition and as a compromise solution it was announced that the ban would remain in place until 2029.[37] According to professor David Zedelashvili, the leftist groups gave the most support to the Georgian Dream constitutional commission and got the most concessions.[5]

The 2021 study by the Georgian Institute of Politics described the Georgian Dream party as having "rather conservative cultural values along with progressive green values".[38] In 2014, the party passed legislation against discrimination toward LGBT individuals, making Georgia the most LGBT-friendly country in the South Caucasus de jure.[39] At the same time the party's majority opposed same-sex marriage in Georgia and amended the constitution to define marriage as "a union between a woman and a man for the purpose of creating a family."[40] In 2021, the Prime Minister Irakli Garibashvili argued against holding the gay parade in Tbilisi, saying that it is against Georgia's predominant Christian traditions and conservative values. Garibashvili also denounced discrimination against LGBT individuals and praised his government for adopting the anti-discrimination law, while noting that "propagandistic parades" only increase discrimination.[41][42] In 2023, the party has denounced "LGBT propaganda among children" and blamed it for increasing number of people who identify as LGBT in the Western countries.[43] Prime Minister Irakli Garibashvili said that the "imposition of LGBT values" is the "violence of the minority over the majority", adding that "as we protect the rights of the minority, just like that we will also protect the rights of the majority".[44][45] In the words of the party's parliamentary speaker Irakli Kobakhidze "We rest on values such as democracy, rule of law, human rights protection, justice, equality and tolerance, but at the same time, pseudo-liberalism and the forces, which are challenging our national identity, traditions and the Georgian churches, as well as the forces, which are challenging the very same values in the U.S., are unacceptable."[46]

The party supports increasing women's representation in politics and voted in favor of amendments to Georgia's Election Code which introduced gender quotas in Georgia, requiring political parties which participate in elections to include women in every fourth position on their party lists.[47] In 2017, the party voted in favor of the ratification of the Istanbul Convention in Georgia.

The party advocates banning old cars for their high levels of carbon emissions and introducing a corporate green tax for businesses that cause environmental pollution.[48]

The biggest rival party is the United National Movement of Mikheil Saakashvili. Therefore, the party's ideology is focused on opposing the UNM and Saakashvili. In this context, political debates often focus on relations with Russia, with both parties accusing each other of 'playing into Moscow's hands'. Social issues are mostly absent from political speeches and debates.[49]

Georgian Dream – Democratic Georgia was the leading member of the Georgian Dream Coalition, which initially included six political parties of diverse ideological orientations.[65][66] The coalition was made up of parties ranging from pro-market and pro-western liberals to nationalists and protectionists, united in their dislike of Saakashvili and the United National Movement.[67][68] The name of the alliance is inspired by a rap song by Ivanishvili's son Bera.[69][70]

The party is led by the Chair, who is the leader of the party's political council. Current chairman is Irakli Kobakhidze.

• Paata Mkheidze (2016–2020), deputy of the Parliament of Georgia, constituency No. 29[71]

• Georgian Dream – Democratic Georgia official website