“Fire rain” and “collective condemnation of the National Movement”: A letter from Bidzina Ivanishvili
The ruling party, “Georgian Dream,” has published a letter from the party’s honorary chairman, oligarch Bidzina Ivanishvili, timed for October 1, in which he threatens a “fire rain” and “collective condemnation of the National Movement [convicted ex-president Mikheil Saakashvili’s party].
On October 1, 2012, when “Georgian Dream” first won the parliamentary elections, Bidzina Ivanishvili, in his extensive letter, called this day ‘The day of the return of freedom.”
This time, he writes that the Georgian Dream government has to “walk on a knife’s edge” to maintain “continuous peace” in the country, despite constant attempts by internal and external enemies to incite revolution and destabilize the country.
Ivanishvili emphasizes the need “to prevent in Georgia what is happening to our neighbor, Ukraine, and what happened in 2008” [meaning the August 2008 war].
The honorary chairman of the ruling party again emphasizes the necessity of obtaining a constitutional majority in the upcoming parliamentary elections on October 26 and reiterates four promises if this is achieved:
- Condemnation of the National Movement,
- Unification of the country,
- Protection of the sanctity of the family,
- And strengthening the role of the church.
“First, the ‘National Movement’ must be recognized as unconstitutional and then condemned to the full extent of the law. This is a collective regime that terrorized, killed, and tortured its own population and started a war.
This is necessary so that Georgia is governed by a government elected by our people, and not by the collective ‘National Movement,‘ consisting of agents of foreign powers.
So that together we can fulfill the long-held dream of seeing our Homeland once again united on the basis of peace, reconciliation, and mutual forgiveness.
So that we can put an end, once and for all, to the constant attempts to insult and demean the family, nationality, and faith, and to strengthen and protect the independence of the Orthodox Church. We must enshrine in the Constitution the role of the Orthodox Church as a pillar of the Georgian state’s identity.
Thus, on October 26, the issue at hand is not a matter of political sympathies or antipathies, but the question of Georgia’s existence,” Ivanishvili’s letter states.
On October 1, 2012, “Georgian Dream” won the parliamentary elections, replaced the “National Movement,” and came to power.
Bidzina Ivanishvili has returned to politics three times. He currently holds the position of honorary chairman of the party, and top government officials make important decisions only after consulting with him — Ivanishvili also selects candidates for the positions of president and prime minister.
Ivanishvili is the only Georgian businessman included in Forbes’ list of world billionaires. As of 2024, his fortune is estimated at $7.4 billion. For comparison, in 2019, his net worth was valued at $4.9 billion.
