Georgian Dream

The party evolved from the public movement Georgian Dream, launched by Ivanishvili as a platform for his political activities in December 2011. Since Ivanishvili was not a Georgian citizen at the moment of the party's inaugural session, the lawyer Manana Kobakhidze was elected as an interim, nominal chairman of the Georgian Dream – Democratic Georgia. The party also includes several notable Georgians such as the politician Sozar Subari, former diplomat Tedo Japaridze, chess grandmaster Zurab Azmaiparashvili, security commentator Irakli Sesiashvili, writer Guram Odisharia and famed footballer Kakha Kaladze.[6][7]

The party successfully challenged the ruling United National Movement (UNM) in the 2012 parliamentary election, pledging to increase welfare spending and pursue a more pragmatic foreign policy with Russia.[6] It won this election in coalition with six other opposition parties, with 54.97% of the vote, being allotted 85 seats in parliament.[5] The governing UMN took 40.34%. President Mikheil Saakashvili conceded that his party lost, and pledged to support the constitutional process of forming a new government.[8]

In April 2017 senior MP Gedevan Popkhadze threatened to quit the party for its endorsement of an opposition-nominated candidate to the supervisory board of the Georgian Public Broadcaster.[9] Popkhadze criticized the candidate for being anti-religious. The incident is seen as an internal conflict between long-time GD members which joined the party while it was in opposition and a new group of members who were installed in high positions prior to the 2016 parliamentary elections. The news agency Democracy and Freedom Watch related the incident to the return of Bidzina Ivanishvili as chairman of the party later that month, which furthermore was perceived as a move to maintain the unity of the coalition.[10]

In August 2018 Chairman of the Georgian Parliament Irakli Kobakhidze announced that the party will nominate no candidate for 2018 presidential elections. Instead it is supporting the independent candidate Salome Zurabishvili.

During the 2019 Georgian protests the party was accused of being corrupt and subservient to Russian interests.[11][12][13][14] In late 2019 Facebook publicly announced that it removed from Facebook and Instagram a number of accounts and pages engaged in coordinated inauthentic behavior that sought to promote the Georgian Dream government.[15]

Like many parties of power the Georgian Dream lacks a clear ideology. The reasons were given for this range from the party's history as an all-encompassing front of people opposed to the UNM government to the standard opportunism associated with such parties. Levan Lortkipanidze, a political science student at Tbilisi State University, described it as "a party of nomenclature, public servants, ‘intelligentsia’, medium and large businessmen, and technocrats – a party, which is held together through loyalty to its charismatic leader and the opposition to the government of the ‘Rose Revolution.’"[16] In addition, it has been reported that left-wing activists view the party as “ideologically amorphous” in contrast to the party's own self-identification with the left itself.[17]

In 2017 the party's majority amended the constitution to define marriage as "a union between a woman and a man for the purpose of creating a family.”[18] Yet instead of citing conservative moral concerns, the party openly explained the amendment as a way to defang groups "stirring up homophobic and anti-Western sentiment."[19] During its first government, the party passed legislation against discrimination toward LGBT individuals, making Georgia the most LGBT-friendly country in the South Caucasus de jure.[20]

According to the Georgian Institute of Politics, Georgian Dream's economic policy comprises a combination of the pre-existing free market model, created by their predecessors, with a comprehensive "centre-left" safety net.[21]

Georgian Dream – Democratic Georgia party is the leading member of the Georgian Dream Coalition, which initially included six political parties of diverse ideological orientations.[22][23] The coalition was made up of pro-market and pro-western liberals, radical nationalists with xenophobic rhetoric, and former representatives of the Shevardnadze administration who were disempowered during the Rose Revolution of 2003.[24] The name of the alliance is inspired by a rap song by Ivanishvili's son Bera.[25][26]

• Georgian Dream – Democratic Georgia official website