Political Platform ‘Strategy Aghmashenebeli’ Holds Party Congress

A new political platform – “the Strategy Aghmashenebeli” – held its congress on July 30. The platform was established by the New Georgia party and Law and Justice party, led by Giorgi Vashadze and Tako Charkviani, respectively, on July 27.

The political platform, the name of which refers to King Davit the Builder, most-revered XI-XII century Georgian monarch, has put forward Giorgi Vashadze as its Prime Ministerial candidate for upcoming October parliamentary polls.

Addressing the congress, Giorgi Vashadze, former UNM MP and ex-Deputy Justice Minister under former President Mikheil Saakashvili, lambasted Georgian Dream (GD) government, noting that eight years of GD rule had deplorable consequences for the country.

He said GD now plans to maintain power via “deceitful [election] promises, intimidation, and bribery.”

Speaking of priorities of the newly set-up political platform, Vashadze named “solving grave problems” caused by the party of “shattered dreams” as the top priority. He then unveiled 5 key promises of the platform for the upcoming polls, namely:

  • Creating 300,000 jobs in the next four years;
  • Halving the interest rates on bank loans since 2021;
  • Since 2021 – 30% reduction of drug prices; there will be no more “monopolist medical companies”;
  • Since 2020 – writing off high-interest rates for pensioners;
  • Since 2021 – businesses with less than GEL 1 million (USD 0.323 million) turnover will be exempted from VAT;

Tako Charkviani, another leader of the platform, also addressed the congress, highlighting that “state institutions collapsed in the past eight years.”

She added that the new political group will aim at convincing the voters, unsatisfied with the “polarized” politics, to get to the polling stations in October.

Charkviani will be running as Tbilisi’s Saburtalo district majoritarian candidate, while Vashadze is bidding for Isani single-mandate constituency in the Georgian Capital.

Previously, both Vashadze and Charkviani were part of the United National Movement led opposition coalition that was set up 2018 ahead of presidential polls.

This post is also available in: ქართული (Georgian) Русский (Russian)