Giorgi Vashadze (from left), Elene Khoshtaria and Zurab Japaridze (Facebook).

Three opposition political parties in Georgia – Strategy Agmashenebeli, Girchi – More Freedom and Droa – establish “a pro-European coalition”, the goal of which is to oust Georgian Dream and solicit getting the EU candidate status by the country.

“There is no other way, and our western partners are waiting for it, but first of all, Georgian people are waiting for it,” Giorgi Vashadze, leader of the Strategy Agmashenebeli, said Wednesday in an interview with Formula.

He says that other opposition parties and “publicly active and well-known people” will join this cause.

Zurab Japaridze, the leader of Girchi – More Freedom, says that in order for Georgia to become part of the European space, it is extremely important to unite the opposition and defeat the Georgian dream by joint action.

“Without unification, coordination and joint action, defeating this system and this monster, with [Bidzina] Ivanishvili at the head, is extremely difficult. We are talking with everyone and trying to find points of intersection,” Zurab Japaridze said in an interview with Mtavari Arkhi, the biggest opposition TV channel.

Droa chairwoman Elene Khoshtaria adds their coalition will continue to work to convince other opposition parties to join in.

“If, say, we cannot achieve some kind of wider unity at this stage due to different positions, it does not mean that we are turning our backs on each other,” said Khoshtaria in an interview with Mtavari Arkhi.

In the 2020 parliamentary elections, Strategy Agmashenebeli got 3.2%, and Girchi 2.9% (although Zurab Japaridze left this party with his associates soon after and created a new party “Girchi – More Freedom”). Droa party was founded in 2021 by Elene Khoshtaria, who was the first deputy minister of state for European and Euro-Atlantic integration issues in 2007-2012.