TBILISI, September 29 – A ruling Georgian Dream lawmaker says Georgia’s opposition could be reshaped again before the 2028 parliamentary election, arguing that foreign actors will try to rearrange parties to appeal to different groups of voters.
Levan Machavariani made the claim in a lengthy post published Monday, describing most opposition parties as parts of a single political network influenced by what he called “external forces” and “foreign patrons”. He did not identify any specific country, organization or individual behind the alleged influence.
Machavariani placed the United National Movement at the center of what Georgian Dream commonly calls the “collective National Movement”. He described former prime minister Giorgi Gakharia’s For Georgia party as presenting itself as a more constructive force, Lelo/Strong Georgia as partly radical, and Akhali as appealing to a more radical section of the electorate. He also included NGOs in what he described as the same wider network.
He argued that new political forces had been created or strengthened to attract different sections of the electorate away from Georgian Dream and said similar attempts at political “rearrangement” would continue before 2028.
Machavariani also linked his argument to Georgian Dream’s controversial transparency and anti-LGBT “propaganda” laws. He claimed the transparency legislation had restricted outside funding of opposition activity, while foreign actors had sought to promote a liberal agenda in Georgia.
The controversial statement was reported by the newspaper Rezonansi, which quoted several analysts who offered different readings of the post. Zaal Anjaparidze said Georgian Dream appeared to be launching a new information campaign aimed at presenting its view of the opposition to voters. He said the party wanted to portray opposition groups as externally managed rather than independent political actors.
Anjaparidze also said Gakharia’s party had already attracted some former Georgian Dream voters who were dissatisfied with the ruling party but unwilling to support the United National Movement or Lelo.
Nika Chitadze, a professor at the International Black Sea University, said the purpose of Machavariani’s post was to discredit opposition parties and people with different political views. He also argued that Georgian Dream was concerned about losing voters, while noting that Machavariani had provided no evidence identifying the foreign forces he accused of directing the opposition.
