Georgia’s Alt Info to run in elections with Alliance of Patriots

The Georgian pro-Russian and far-right group, Alt Info, has announced they will run in the October parliamentary elections through the electoral list of the Alliance of Patriots — circumventing the authorities’ de-registering of their own political wing.

Zurab Makhardze, one of Alt Info’s leaders, said they had reached an agreement with the pro-Russian and ultra-conservative Alliance of Patriots party on Monday.

‘The only chance for us to participate in the elections was [to join] a party that they cannot cancel’, he said, adding that his group was also engaged in talks with other ‘conservative forces’.

Alt Info had in recent years remained supportive of the government, with the authorities also declining to prosecute the group’s leaders for directing violent attacks against journalists and activists. 

However, as part of an apparent falling out, the authorities de-registered Alt Info’s political wing, the Conservative Movement, in early April, barring them from running in elections. 

The group then announced they had reached an agreement with another far-right party, Georgian Idea, to run on their list. In late April, they said Georgia’s Public Registry had also moved to deregister Georgian Idea.

‘Today, such a party on the conservative flank with which we are ideologically aligned and which cannot be blocked — is the Alliance of Patriots’, said Makhardze, stressing that his group would ‘definitely take part in this year’s parliamentary elections’.

‘And we will not be the only ones. On the conservative wing, those who are more or less weighty, a truly conservative force, will unite and through the Alliance of Patriots party, this great national unity will take part in the elections’.

In the 2020 parliamentary elections, the Alliance of Patriots won 4 seats with around 3% of the vote. MPs from their party then went on to leave to create a new pro-government party, the European Socialists.

On the same day, Konstantine Morgoshia, another of Alt Info’s leaders, wrote that ‘the country’s conservative forces will take part in the elections as an electoral block, through the party with national positions, the Alliance of Patriots!’

Rumours of a rift between the Government and Alt Info emerged in 2023, coming to a head with the Public Registry’s de-registering of the Conservative Movement in April.

Days after the authorities decided to de-register the Conservative Movement as a party, Alt Info held a rally near the ruling Georgian Dream party’s offices.