The Patriarchate of the Georgian Orthodox Church has issued a statement which tacitly endorsed the ruling Georgian Dream party while still claiming neutrality.

In their statement on Tuesday, the Church listed the protection of ‘national and religious values’, the unification of the country, ‘safeguarding sovereignty’, and ‘maintaining peace’ as priorities equally shared by both the Georgian public and the country’s state institutions.

In the statement released by its Public Relations Office, the Patriarchate noted that the Church could not take sides, but added that it would ‘unequivocally support any choice that brings long-term peace to Georgia and strengthens the values that promote Christian and family traditions’.

The Patriarchate’s statement was interpreted by some Georgians as an endorsement of the incumbent Georgian Dream party, particularly because it echoed key phrases from the party’s conservative talking points and election promises, repeating them twice within a short statement.

Specifically, in the lead-up to the 26 October vote, the ruling party adopted a bill on the ‘protection of family values and a minor’, which largely aligned with the Church’s calls from last year to ban what they termed ‘LGBT propaganda’. 

[Read more: Explainer | What’s in Georgia’s new anti-queer bill?]

In recent years, the party has also frequently employed rhetoric emphasising Georgia’s strong sovereignty, which Georgian Dream has contrasted with what they have described as Western interference in the country’s domestic affairs.

Additionally, a promise to continue to ensure Georgia would not be drawn into a war with Russia became one of Georgian Dream’s key campaign messages.

Two months before the Patriarchate’s latest statement, Georgian Dream described the upcoming elections as a ‘referendum’ between ‘war or peace, moral degradation or traditional values, subservience to external forces or an independent sovereign state’. 

[Read more: Georgian Dream to seek constitutional majority to ban the opposition] 

The Church’s statement issued on Tuesday may be the most significant show of public support the incumbent party has received from them recently, in contrast to their lukewarm response to the party’s pre-election proposal in August to designate Orthodox Christianity as the state religion.

[Read more: Georgian Dream proposes to recognise Orthodox Christianity as state religion]