UNM’s Bezhashvili: Opposition cannot defeat “the oligarch” divided, and unity is the only way

“Georgian Dream cannot be removed from power unless the opposition parties unite,” said Levan Bezhashvili, a member of the United National Movement.

Bezhashvili said unity is the answer, and that the United National Movement had urged the parties to unite as early as the 2024 elections.

“From the outset we were doing what society asked of us, and back in the 2024 parliamentary elections the National Movement was urging society and the political parties that unity was essential. Serbia’s recent elections, where the opposition came together to defeat an autocratic regime, proved the vital need for unity. When we talk about bringing down the oligarch, we must face facts: fractured parties cannot defeat him. He has limitless money, the full weight of administrative power, and a brutal coercive apparatus in the form of the police and security services. Only organised, motivated people can stand up to that. Naturally, unity is the answer,” Bezhashvili said.

Former President Mikheil Saakashvili wrote on social media: “This is no time to sideline anyone. If people had listened to me in 2024 and we had gone forward with a single centre, Ivanishvili would no longer exist. Now, too, the only recipe is unity. That is how it was in Hungary, and that is how it happened in Serbia.” He added: “The country’s real leader, or leaders, must be made use of, bearing in mind that the leader is in prison.”