Georgia's ruling party calls for banning three major opposition parties

2025-10-29 09:06:00, Kosova & Bota CNA

Georgia's ruling party calls for banning three major opposition parties

Senior Georgian Dream official, Shalva Papaushvili

Georgia's ruling party, Georgian Dream, has asked the country's Constitutional Court to ban the three largest opposition parties, which have a strong pro-Western stance, a senior member of the party said.

Shalva Papaushvili said that the parties "practically and consistently deny the internal and external political legitimacy of the current Government and the ruling party of Georgia, and consequently its constitutionality."

The three opposition parties – the Coalition for Change, the United National Movement and the Strong Georgia-Lelo bloc – “pose a real threat to the constitutional order,” Papaushvili said on October 28.

"Our request contains evidence that these political parties are guided by unconstitutional goals," Papushvili said.

Papuashvili said the decision was also made based on the size and influence of the three parties. He stressed that smaller allied political groups have not been included in their request at this stage, but that could change.

"Their unconstitutional potential could be examined later if they gain major influence in the political process," Papaushvili said.

Irakli Kupradze, a senior member of the Strong Georgia party, is quoted by local media as saying that the demand put forward by Georgian Dream “is a decisive blow to democracy,” promising that his party will resist this blow.

Georgia, a candidate country for membership in the European Union, has experienced a deterioration in relations with the bloc since Tbilisi passed a law against the LGBT community and the so-called law against foreign agents last year.

Relations deteriorated further after parliamentary elections held last October, when the Georgian Dream retained power and then decided to halt EU membership talks, adopting policies that many – including Brussels – consider to be pro-Russian.

Protests have been held daily in Tbilisi since the elections and intensified after Prime Minister Irakli Kobakhidze announced the suspension of membership talks.

Several senior Georgian opposition figures have been arrested, while police have intensified arrests of protesters during anti-government protests.

Georgian Dream says it still wants to join the EU, but only if it can preserve, as it says, traditional Orthodox Christian values, as well as peaceful relations with Russia.

Key figures in the Georgian Dream, including billionaire and former prime minister Bidzina Ivanishvili, have repeatedly vowed to ban opposition parties because of what they have argued are their alleged links to former president Mikheil Saakashvili, who is serving a prison sentence for abuse of power. He is expected to remain in prison until 2034.

Two of the three opposition parties facing bans have criticized Saakashvili, who led Georgia as a pro-Western reformer from 2003 to 2012. However, opinion in Georgia about Saakashvili remains divided: some praise him for his reforms and rapprochement with the West, others criticize him and see him as an unpredictable, authoritarian politician and the author of the short war with Russia in 2008. /REL