“I call on everyone to come together in two days, put everything else aside, and pass this historic test together. We must show the world that alongside our Georgian spirit, European spirit also beats in our hearts,” declared Mamuka Khazaradze, leader of the Strong Georgia coalition, during his final election speech in Tbilisi.

“I was 22 when the Berlin Wall fell. That’s when I first felt we could follow this path too. Since then we, together with Badri and my team members, have done everything during our time in business to bring European technologies, European education, and European investment to this country. We created dozens of companies, and today several large companies compete with European businesses in the European market. This is exactly what I thought would happen in politics too, but for 12 years, Bidzina Ivanishvili essentially halted our country with his lies and promises that people believed.

These were promises of 100 factories, free money, and claims that he would astonish Europe with exceptional democracy. Most importantly, he stopped the project of the century, the Anaklia project, which eliminated tens of thousands of potential jobs. All of this must end, and we can end it in two days because in two days we can change the reality in this country based on lies and begin building a strong Georgia,” stated Mamuka Khazaradze.

According to Khazaradze, his team decided to fulfil the Georgian people’s mandate.

“What was this mandate? For twenty years, two parties ruled this country, and people stopped casting their votes because they had no alternative. We created a new coalition that united Lelo, Ana Dolidze’s party For the People, Aleko Elisashvili’s Citizens, Levan Tsutskiridze’s Freedom Square, and Georgia’s fourth president. We created a genuine, real alternative in the form of the Strong Georgia.

This Strong Georgia has a powerful program, Ilia’s Path. I think we understand very well what this means for the Georgian people. In this Ilia’s Path, we have outlined the reforms that will lead us to EU membership and a strong country,” noted Mamuka Khazaradze.

He emphasized that after 20 years of the country being ruled by two parties, his team emerged as a real alternative with concrete plans and programs.

“What does it mean to practice new politics? New politics means listening to people, involving those who work day and night and are ready to do anything out of love for Georgia. These are the mothers, who want their children to have an excellent future and outstanding education. These are the veterans, who sacrificed themselves for our independence and preserved it, and we are now gathered to protect this independence, which we do daily. These are the displaced people whose memories, lost homes, and time spent in displacement inspire us to achieve rapid reintegration and unification of our country. These are the young people who want to build their lives here and not think that leaving the country is their only chance. 117,000 young people under 30 have left our country. This is catastrophic, and Bidzina doesn’t hear these people’s voices. Georgian Dream doesn’t hear them because they serve Russian interests, and all this serves the elite group of Georgian Dream who are so deeply involved in corruption that they don’t know where else to go. That’s why they want to maintain power, but we, Strong Georgia, hear these people. We listen to these people, and it is through such people’s involvement that new politics will be made in Georgia,” declared Mamuka Khazaradze.

According to him, the country needs leaders with a clean record.

“The same faces for 20 years. This country needs leaders who have a clean record, who haven’t been in government before, who have a plan, who will take risks, and who aren’t coming because they’ve been in power for a long time. These are exactly the kind of people who are the founders and leaders of Strong Georgia, and these are the leaders our voters should give a chance to, and yes, this is a chance for us to build a strong country together.

In two days, we have a unique opportunity to go together and defeat nihilism in this country first, defeat Russian politics, and together restore to this country the choice that our ancestors made, the choice that you made, the choice that is written in our constitution, and this choice is the European choice. And do you know why? Because the European choice is the national choice. We are a European country. We are an ancient nation, and it is precisely in that space that we are guaranteed peace, protection of religion, protection of our homeland and territories, and stability – this is that place.

I call on everyone to come together in two days, put everything else aside, and pass this historic test together. We must show the world that alongside our Georgian spirit, European spirit also beats in our hearts,” declared Mamuka Khazaradze.