TBILISI, October 28 – Georgia’s political scene heated up Tuesday as former Prime Minister Giorgi Gakharia’s party finally took its 12 seats in parliament after nearly a year-long boycott, and immediately clashed with lawmakers from the ruling Georgian Dream party.
The session opened with parliamentary speaker Shalva Papuashvili greeting the opposition newcomers with a jab: “You’ve arrived one year late, but better late than never.” Gakharia’s deputies were sworn in almost exactly a year after the disputed October 26, 2024 elections, which they had refused to recognize.
Before entering parliament, Gakharia’s party, For Georgia, had insisted their participation “does not mean legitimizing parliament.” But Tuesday’s debut made clear that the standoff between the ex-prime minister and his former party is far from over.
Lawmakers from Georgian Dream met them with harsh words. MP Irakli Kirtzkhalia accused the group of hypocrisy, saying they should be grateful to the ruling majority for “allowing them to sit here at all.” Another GD deputy, Levan Machavariani, branded Gakharia a “traitor” and cited past controversies, including his role during the 2019 protest crackdown in Tbilisi.
Giorgi Sharashidze of For Georgia said the ruling party would now have to get used to hearing uncomfortable truths in a chamber that “will no longer serve as Georgian Dream’s party office.”
The exchange grew more personal when GD MP Tengiz Sharmanashvili said he would only accept “fact-based criticism.” Gakharia’s ally Tata Khvedeliani retorted that he “served as an ambassador under Saakashvili,” prompting Sharmanashvili to shoot back, “I was not Saakashvili’s ambassador, I was Georgia’s ambassador.”
According to analysts that Rezonansi spoke to, Gakharia’s entry into parliament will not dramatically reshape Georgian politics. Political scientist Petre Mamradze told the newspaper that the move was driven more by financial than political necessity. “Each MP earns over 10,000 lari a month. Without parliamentary status, the party could not survive,” he said, adding that Gakharia’s team “has no clear ideology or program.”
Analyst Vakhtang Dzabiradze agreed that the shift is largely symbolic. “It changes little. Georgian Dream is in a phase of revenge and will keep attacking Gakharia’s group,” he said. “Their voters are mostly ex-Dream supporters, and the ruling party won’t forgive that.”
Both analysts predict tensions between the two camps will flare up during upcoming sessions but eventually fade into routine. “It’s normal that the first few debates draw attention,” Mamradze said. “Soon it will become background noise. Politics as usual.”
