United Neutral Georgia, an anti-EU platform widely seen as aligned with the ruling Georgian Dream party, held on December 1 its founding congress to establish itself as a political party.
The party’s founding congress comes a month after Georgian Dream appealed to the Constitutional Court to ban three major opposition forces, while signaling a broader crackdown on the rest.
The group, which has long echoed and amplified Georgian Dream’s anti-Western and homophobic rhetoric, advocates for “neutrality” and opposes Georgia’s Euro-Atlantic integration, repeatedly calling for a referendum on the issue. In recent months, Georgian authorities have cracked down on opposition figures and civil society groups through “sabotage” investigations launched after the movement’s appeals.
“The process of freeing the public and political sphere from agents is beginning,” said Vato Shakarashvili, a leader of the movement, as he addressed the congress. “We are taking the first steps, but we are not moving forward.”
Shakarashvili, a former Georgian Dream deputy in Tbilisi City Council who left the party in 2019 over its controversial judicial appointments, has since adopted increasingly conservative and hardline positions. He ran as an independent in the 2021 municipal elections.
The platform, which emerged last summer, also brings together other hardline figures, including Nana Kakabadze, a prominent and controversial public voice who has for decades positioned herself as a human rights defender.
“When the government talks about the dire situation the European Union is currently in, it simultaneously continues its rhetoric about Georgia’s accession,” Shakarashvili added. “As a result, Georgia continues to exist in a Euro-illusion – an illusion into which we were forcibly drawn.”
Shakarashvili also criticized Article 78 of the Constitution, which mandates Georgia’s aspiration to join the EU and NATO, calling its inclusion in the Constitution “a total absurdity.”
“If we continue living in this Euro-illusion, sooner or later Washington and Brussels will again be able to bring their agents to power,” he warned. “By continuing to wave NATO and EU flags, we are placing ourselves in a fiery ring against Russia – something that was and remains part of a plan by U.S. intelligence services.”
Following the movement’s appeals and testimonies, authorities have pursued a series of actions against the opposition and civil society groups, including the launch of so-called “sabotage” cases against nongovernmental organizations, solidarity funds, and opposition politicians.
Shakarashvili pledged that the party would be represented in Parliament after the 2028 elections.
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