Ivanishvili: “Violent Attempts to Impose Pseudo-Liberal Values from Abroad Will Finally End”

On September 8, Bidzina Ivanishvili, the ruling party’s Honorary Chairman, speaking behind the bulletproof glass booth addressed the crowd at the party’s rally in the southwestern Georgian town of Akhaltsikhe. His speech echoed the narratives similar the ones voiced at previous rallies in Mtskheta, Ambrolauri, and Ozurgeti, with special accent on banning the “collective UNM” and preventing “attempts to impose pseudo-liberal values from abroad.”

Ivanishvili praised at length the Georgian Dream’s 12-year-old governance claiming that: “By standing together, we made it and built the country where all human rights, freedom of opinion and speech are protected, the judiciary is healthier, the media is independent and business is inviolable, the country where people live freely and no longer fear political persecution,” and adding that the ruling power does not plan to stop: “Also in the future we will do everything so that all of you, every citizen of Georgia, will experience in your life the development of the country and prosperity.”

But more importantly for Ivanishvili, the GD government must first be praised for 12 years of “continuous” peace, which, he told the people, “is the result of your years of declared support for the Georgian Dream,” and was greeted with loud, allegedly pre-recorded applause, similarly to previous rallies.

Ivanishvili again warned against the “collective UNM,” the GD jargon that includes all pro-Western opposition parties, civil society, and generally all critics of the government. Ivanishvili said that the “collective UNM” is eyeing war and sees it “not as a disaster, but as an opportunity” to “return to power, even with the means of war, at the cost of the blood of its own people.”

He again accused the “collective UNM” of “provoking” the August 2008 war and then trying to drag Georgia into Russia’s war against Ukraine and opening a “second front” in Georgia. Ivanishvili claimed that the opening of the “second front” is “the direct order of their [collective UNM’s] foreign patrons, and it ideally suits the radical, narrow partisan interest of the collective UNM to return to the government at any cost.”

Ivanishvili further dramatized the picture he painted by saying that today Georgian Dream is essentially not involved in the regular pre-election campaign, “but in the fight to protect peace, the sovereignty of our country, our traditions and values,” adding that the arena of this fight will be the October 26 parliamentary elections. 

“On October 26, the Georgian population, unfortunately, will not decide between good and better; because of the radical opposition, the people without a motherland, on October 26 we will decide between war and peace, [between] pseudo-liberal values and nationality, family, faith and values based on independence, we will decide between the dignified European future of our country and the unacceptable reality that the radical opposition, with its foreign actors, wants to present as European.” 

Calling the United National Movement, “one of the main threats to the country’s sovereignty and security,” he reiterated promised to outlaw the party.

He also promised that “violent attempts to impose pseudo-liberal values on our people from foreign countries will finally end.”

He also stressed the need for the GD to win the elections in such a “convincing” way that no one will be able to question it “in order to finally put an end to the political chaos that the collective UNM is constantly trying to create with its foreign partners.”

Another of Ivanishvili’s promises was that if the ruling party won a constitutional majority, it would prepare the constitutional ground for the moment when the chance to restore Georgia’s territorial integrity would come.

Ivanishvili also said that the GD will reflect the role of the Orthodox Church in the elections in the form “it deserves”. He added: “Orthodox Christianity will be strengthened by the Constitution as a pillar of the Georgian state’s identity.” He added, however, that no other religion and its rights would be harmed. 

Ivanishvili concluded his speech with words from the Georgian medieval epic poem “The Knight in the Panther’s Skin” by Shota Rustaveli. “Evil is vanquished by good, for the essence of good is enduring,” adding: “On October 26, Georgia will once again defeat evil, which will be the basis for long-term peace and stability in our country.”

Also Read:

• 25/08/2024 – Bidzina Ivanishvili Drops “Faith” Hint About the Planned Constitutional Change
• 21/08/2024 – Ivanishvili Hammers Home the Message of Political Revenge, Dangles Hope of Salvation
• 24/07/2024 – SSSG Talks Coup, Terrorist Plot, Attack on Bidzina Ivanishvili by Former Georgian Officials, Law Enforcers in Ukraine
• 16/07/2024 – Ivanishvili Launches GD Campaign with “Global Party of War” Conspiracy as its Pivot
• 29/04/2024 – Bidzina Ivanishvili Backs Anti-Western Policies, Threatens Repressions

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