For a long time he was pulling the strings behind the scenes. Now Georgian billionaire Ivanishvili wants to take matters into his own hands. His main goal - to change the constitution, and probably to conclude a territorial deal with Russia.
The governing party “Georgian Dream” has set itself a clear goal: to achieve a majority of two-thirds of the seats in the parliament in the elections on October 26, so that it can change the constitution. It was announced by the founder and honorary chairman of the party, Bidzina Ivanishvili. The extremely rich businessman no longer leaves the implementation of this task to his subordinates, writes ARD. After years of behind-the-scenes influence, he is now taking matters into his own hands and running for parliament.
Ivanishvili wants to “change the political system fundamentally”. And this means one thing - to eliminate the liberal opposition in the face of the “United National Movement” (END), which ruled before his party came to power.
END is now weaker than ever, ARD explains. The former leader of the movement, Mikheil Saakashvili, is in prison, and the party has split several times. However, Ivanishvili does not stop describing her as the biggest enemy of the state, adding to this image other pro-Western parties, non-governmental organizations and even President Salome Zurabishvili, since she distanced herself from him and asked to cooperate with the opposition.
“Nuremberg Trial” for the opposition
Parliamentary elections in Georgia to become a “Nuremberg trial” for “statelessness” and “foreign agents”, urged Ivanishvili. To rally the largely conservative Georgian population behind him, Ivanishvili has promised other constitutional changes, such as making Orthodox Christianity the state religion. However, high-ranking representatives of the church are not particularly happy with this idea - they are worried that the state will influence them, writes ARD. Ivanishvili promises that Orthodox Christianity will be written into the constitution as a “pillar of Georgian identity”. He promises another thing - to include in the basic law “family values and the protection of children”, as well as a ban on “LGBTI propaganda”.
A deal with Russia?
Ivanishvili does not give details about his other ideas for changes to the constitution, writes ARD. In the event of a peaceful restoration of Georgia's territorial integrity, "Georgian system of government and territorial state order must be brought into line with the new reality,” said the leader of “Georgian Dream”.
This statement brought back to the agenda the speculations that have been discussed in Georgia for months - that Ivanishvili could make a deal with Russia. According to her, Georgia will gain control over the breakaway territories of South Ossetia and Abkhazia or enter a federation with the two territories. In exchange, Georgia will have to give up its constitutional goal of transatlantic integration, EU and NATO membership. A poll in 2021 showed that if Georgians had a choice between the two options, the majority would prefer the return of the territories.
The stigmatization of “foreign agents”
Although it remains unclear what exactly Ivanishvili wants to do in this matter, he openly demonstrates another desire of his, bordering on obsession, writes the German social-legal media. It is about the demand that the liberal opposition be crushed once and for all. The “Foreign Agents” was already accepted. As of September 2, all organizations and media that receive more than 20 percent of their revenue from sources outside Georgia must register with the Ministry of Justice.
According to the department's data, 476 organizations have complied with the request - this is only a small part of all that fall under the jurisdiction of the law, notes ARD. The Georgian National Statistics Service reports that there are over 4,000 organizations active in the country, and between 40 and 60 of them are publicly known. Those who refuse to comply with the new legislation now face mandatory registration and fines of the equivalent of €8,000.
This is precisely the reason why the European Union has frozen the negotiations for Georgia's accession to the community.
What really excites people?
With a large percentage of Georgians wanting to become part of the EU, Ivanishvili is now trying to blame Brussels and the opposition for stalling the talks. It is not clear to what extent this is accepted as legitimate by the voters, writes ARD. However, this issue is not the most serious problem for Georgians - surveys show that people in the country are much more interested in low income and social problems. Georgians go on strike more and more often, there were also several women's hunger strikes.
As in previous elections, many will feel compelled to sell their vote to the ruling party in order to keep their jobs or receive a campaign gift. The ruling party has already accused local and international election observers of seeking to provoke violence and stage a coup with alleged trumped-up charges. Russia's foreign intelligence service, the FSB, joined them, claiming that the US wanted to interfere in the election and use the OSCE election monitoring organization to do so. Georgia has turbulent weeks ahead.