Georgia’s opposition attempts a political reset with new alliance
Georgia’s opposition are seemingly attempting something broader than simply defeating the ruling Georgian Dream party.
As Georgia’s political crisis approaches its 500th day of street protests, nine pro-European opposition parties have formed a new alliance, not only to challenge Georgian Dream’s rule, but to attempt something Georgia’s fragmented opposition has long struggled with: resetting the country’s political system itself.
The alliance is built around three principles: unity without uniformity, meaning parties retain their ideological identities while coordinating protest and communication strategies; the creation of a credible democratic alternative; and a joint strategy focused on expanding protests, increasing international pressure, and presenting Georgian society with a viable political alternative.
The parties — United National Movement (UNM), Ahali, Girchi – More Freedom, Droa, the Federalists, Freedom Square, Strategy Aghmashenebeli, European Georgia, and the National Democratic Party — reached such an agreement on 4 March.
‘We, the national democratic political forces of Georgia, recognise that this is a vital struggle for the survival of the Georgian state and for securing our historical place in the civilised world. This is not merely a fight to replace a bad government. What is being decided now is where the new “Iron Curtain” will fall, and on which side our children and grandchildren will live’, the alliance’s joint statement reads.
The final document — combining strategy, mission, and a detailed code of conduct — was negotiated for months.
In Georgia’s political environment, where alliances tend to appear and disappear faster than election promises, skepticism would be understandable. Yet the very fact that so many parties — whose leaders have often been bitter rivals — managed to agree not only on a shared document but also on binding rules of cooperation marks a notable step.
‘A systemic reset of the Georgian political spectrum’
‘I honestly cannot recall another political agreement where the rules of cooperation were written out this clearly’, Girchi – More Freedom leader Zurab Japaridze tells OC Media.
The code of conduct regulates how the parties will interact with one another, aiming to prevent the familiar cycle of internal conflicts that has long weakened Georgia’s opposition.
Japaridze, who spent seven months in prison for boycotting an anti-opposition parliamentary commission before being released in December 2025, has since used nearly every public appearance to emphasise the importance of unity among Georgia’s democratic forces. When asked whether this alliance reflects what he had previously advocated, he answers cautiously.
‘This is the best result we could achieve at the moment. This unity came at the cost of many compromises. And that’s a good thing. It’s a step forward’.
Supporters of the initiative argue that what distinguishes this alliance from previous attempts at opposition unity is that it is not simply directed against the ruling Georgian Dream government. Instead, they say, it is meant to challenge the political system itself and restore trust in a political landscape where many voters feel unrepresented.
‘I see this process as a systemic reset of the Georgian political spectrum’, Tamar Chergoleishvili, leader of the newly founded Federalists party, tells OC Media.
Chergoleishvili compares the process to the biblical journey of Moses and the Jewish people through the desert before reaching the promised land. In her view, Georgia has spent more than three decades wandering through its own political desert since regaining independence from the Soviet Union, searching for a stable liberal democratic identity. Now, she believes, the country may be approaching its final chapter. Unlike many previous political initiatives, she argues, this alliance has emerged in response to public demand.
‘This is coming from Georgian society. It’s their mandate. And now is the time’, Chergoleishvili says.
Both Chergoleishvili and Levan Tsutskiridze, leader of the recently established Freedom Square party, emphasise that public demand is precisely what should ensure that the parties remain committed to the agreement. They also share another vision for the alliance’s future: preserving the distinct identities of political parties rather than dissolving them into a single bloc.
‘We believe Freedom Square has its own independent and unique path’, Tsutskiridze tells OC Media.
‘Of course we will fully honour this agreement and cooperate closely with the other parties, but we will continue our own political journey’.
Mikheil Gvadzabia
‘We must demonstrate that we are the alternative’
Georgians have been protesting in one form or another since the spring of 2024, when the government reintroduced the foreign agents law, often referred to as the Russian law, targeting independent media and civil society organisations. After Prime Minister Irakli Kobakhidze announced on 28 November that Georgia would halt its EU accession negotiations, the protests became a daily occurrence. Yet despite significant mobilisation, the energy on the streets struggled to transform into a clear political process capable of producing change. Over time, the number of people attending protests gradually declined.
There are many reasons for this. Participation in protests has come with increasingly high costs, from heavy fines to administrative detention for minor violations such as standing on the pavement.
But alongside repression, another factor has played an equally significant role: deep public distrust toward political parties.
Public opinion surveys have shown that a majority of Georgians believe no political party truly represents their interests.
This distrust became particularly visible after the October 2024 parliamentary elections. Despite opposition parties collectively receiving around 900,000 votes in elections widely believed to be rigged, they struggled to mobilise even a fraction of that support in street protests during the following month. Large-scale demonstrations returned only after Kobakhidze’s announcement on the halting of EU negotiations reignited public anger.
Melor Shengelia
According to Chergoleishvili, this is precisely why the alliance’s signatory parties insist that victory cannot simply mean removing the current government. What matters just as much is what comes afterward.
‘Protest, sanctions, an alternative. We must demonstrate that we are the alternative’, she says. ‘We must show that after regime change, life for Georgian citizens will genuinely improve’.
Much of this agenda had already been outlined in the Georgian Charter initiated by Georgia’s fifth president, Salome Zourabichvili.
‘The goal of this document was to agree on concrete steps’, Japaridze says. ‘Much of what we included here essentially comes from the Georgian Charter’.
Not all of the charter’s signatories, however, have joined the new alliance. Lelo – Strong Georgia argues that broad political diversity, rather than a unified opposition alliance, is necessary to attract voters who reject both Georgian Dream and the formerly-ruling UNM party.
‘Unity of purpose is best served by political diversity, while a bipolar system is precisely what Georgian Dream has tried to cultivate for years’, Grigol Gegelia, Lelo – Strong Georgia’s foreign secretary, tells OC Media
Another opposition party, the original Girchi party, has also ruled out joining the alliance, citing similar concerns about association with the UNM, though the party itself was founded in 2015 by four former UNM MPs.
‘We wish them success on the path of unity’, Girchi leader Aleksandre Rakviashvili tells OC Media, adding that he hopes the alliance will eventually ‘develop some ideas and debate them publicly’.
While criticism of the alliance often revolves around affiliation with the UNM, supporters of the initiative argue that framing the alliance — which features several parties and leaders who have never been associated with the party — primarily through such a lens risks repeating a narrative long promoted by the ruling Georgian Dream party to delegitimise the broader opposition.
Kobakhidze has echoed similar rhetoric, warning that parties joining the alliance could face legal consequences. Commenting on the initiative, Kobakhidze suggested the government might need to amend its constitutional complaint seeking to ban major opposition parties.
Whether the new alliance will succeed remains uncertain. Georgian politics has seen numerous attempts at opposition unity before, many of which ultimately collapsed under the weight of personal rivalries and strategic disagreements. But for the first time in years, opposition parties appear to be attempting something broader than simply defeating the ruling party.
They are trying to rebuild trust, redefine cooperation, and reset the rules of political competition themselves. In a country where many citizens believe politics has long been broken, that ambition alone may prove as consequential as the alliance itself.
