People’s Power Officially Registers Political Party

On March 18, the political movement People’s Power, a spin-off of Georgian Dream, officially registered as a political party. During a founding congress, the party adopted its charter and structure, and unanimously elected former GD Member of Parliament Sozar Subari as the party’s leader.

The party’s main committee consists of eight members and includes Dimitri Khundadze, Mikheil Kavelashvili, Guram Macharashvili, Eka Sepashvili, Davit Katcharava, Viktor Japaridze, Zaal Mikeladze and Irakli (Dachi) Beraia.

Before the congress began, Viktor Japaridze spoke to journalists about the party’s plans. He said: “Unlike those parties that say “we will come to power”, we are not talking about that, we are talking about actually overcoming the 5% threshold… [Journalist: Are you ready to create a coalition with Georgian Dream?] Of course, who then? Should we form a coalition with the UNM? God forbid”.

“Our main task is to put the regime that has been in power for 9 years on trial, to finally prosecute the National Movement party and to shed light on everything, including the war and other processes…” – said another party member Irakli (Dachi) Beraia, adding that he expects the party to receive a significant number of votes. “We aren’t the party created to just pass the 5% threshold now, are we?”

The anti-Western People’s Power movement was created in 2022 by GD MPs who left the party, declaring that the GD had fallen into the EU candidacy “mousetrap” and pushed the narrative that the EU wouldn’t give Georgia the candidacy if it didn’t open a “second front” to fight Russia after the invasion of Ukraine. In the last two years, People’s Power has openly criticized the West in its many lengthy letters and pushed to restrict the rights of foreign-funded civil society organizations by initiating the infamous “Foreign Agents” bill, which was dropped in March 2023 after massive protests.

Also Read:

• 24/01/2023 – People Power Says USAID-backed Rule of Law Project “Attack on Sovereignty”
• 04/10/2022 – “Georgian Dream” Loses Parliamentary Majority

This post is also available in: ქართული (Georgian) Русский (Russian)