Georgia’s ruling party official: opposition groups competing for external backing

Levan Machavariani, the First Deputy Chair of the ruling Georgian Dream party faction in the Parliament, on Wednesday said there was intense competition among opposition “agent network forces” for the favour of external patrons, as being the preferred group brings more funding and privileges.

In his interview with Imedi TV, Machavariani emphasised that Georgians reject any party controlled from outside the country.

“External patrons have been observing how the processes are developing for 14 years - we have defeated their favourite forces ten times in elections. They had to change something. In 2025, they made a different decision - they allowed the Lelo party and Gakharia’s party to participate in the elections, while leaving the rest of the agent network out of the game, so that society would have the perception that these two parties are independent forces and act independently. In reality, these forces are managed by exactly the same vertical”, he said.

The official further noted that these groups were still managed by the same external vertical, and efforts are underway to rebrand them ahead of 2028.

“External patrons continue the development of this scenario - with this artificial hype, they are trying to shift society’s attention to this alliance and the National Movement, and by 2028 fully separate Lelo and Gakharia in the eyes of a certain number of our citizens, as if they were independent parties”, Machavariani stressed.

He highlighted the sharp decline in their voter support as evidence that Georgian society sees through these manipulations and does not want externally controlled parties in power.

“However, our society has understood all this very well. When Gakharia-Lelo had no so-called competitors in 2025 in the form of the rest of the agent network, Lelo’s voter numbers were halved, and Gakharia’s party’s numbers were reduced to one-third compared to 2024. This happened because Georgians are very experienced and external forces cannot fool them with such lies. At one point, Gakharia-Lelo voters became convinced that they too represent the collective National Movement and obey external forces. Of course, Georgians do not want a party in power that is controlled entirely from outside”, he concluded.