“People’s Power” Stages Move into “Opposition”
Guram Macharashvili, the executive chair of GD spin-off party People’s Power, announced that his party had decided to leave the ruling parliamentary majority in the all-GD parliament, citing the lack of a “healthy opposition” in the country. Virulently anti-Western People’s Power formally spun off from GD in 2022 in what was widely considered a staged move to create an anti-Western platform. This approach was confirmed after the party folded back into GD during the election campaign.
Now that the GD is sitting alone in the rump parliament with a crisis of legitimacy, Machavariani argued, “Along with the country’s many problems, there is a problem that there is practically no opposition, no healthy force to perform its duties,” He called the rest of the opposition “radical”, largely “financed by foreign forces” and thus lacking independence.
Paradoxically, Macharashvili stressed having “no fundamental disagreement” with GD. Still, he offered “a true, principled opposition to the government” and a “healthy critique” of the ruling party.
Notably, Mikheil Kavelashvili, nominated as a presidential candidate on November 27 by GD patron Bidzina Ivanishvili, belongs to People’s Power.
People’s Power has regularly published lengthy letters slamming the West, but also pushing the populist-conservative agenda. In 2023, they initiated the bill to restrict activities of foreign-funded civil society organizations (so-called “Foreign Agents bill”), which was then reintroduced and passed by the ruling Georgian Dream in 2024 leading to harsh domestic and international outcry. The party positions itself as a staunch defender of the country’s “sovereignty” and Orthodox Christian values.
Also Read:
- 20/06/2024 – People’s Power Attacks Amb. Dunnigan, Says She “Crossed a Red Line”
- 20/04/2024 – People’s Power Attacks West over “Foreign Agents” Bill Criticism
- 15/02/2023 – People’s Power Tables Draft Law on Foreign Agents
- 18/11/2022 – Anti-Western ‘People Power’ Want to Curb Foreign CSO Funding
This post is also available in: ქართული (Georgian)