United National Movement Creates Parliamentary Faction

The largest opposition party established a parliamentary faction on June 7, under the name “United National National Movement – United Opposition – Strength in Unity.”

The faction, the opposition’s third in the Parliament, is comprised of 32 members and chaired by UNM’s Khatia Dekanoidze. The deputy chairs are UNM MPs Levan Bezhashvili and Giorgi Botkoveli, as well as Nato Chkheidze of the State for the People, a minor party under the UNM-led bloc in the 2020 October elections.

Following a seven-months-long boycott of the legislature, the UNM decided the enter the Parliament on May 30, but refrained from signing the EU-brokered April 19 agreement. The largest opposition party’s lawmakers have not yet attended any plenary sessions, however.

The UNM-led bloc initially received 36 parliamentary mandates, coming in second in the October 2020 parliamentary elections. Two of its MPs – former party Chair Grigol Vashadze and Salome Samadashvili have left the party. MP Vashadze has joined the Charles Michel Reforms Group faction, while MP Samadashvili has enlisted in the Lelo – Partnership for Georgia faction. Of the two Republican Party MPs under the UNM-led bloc, Khatuna Samnidze has joined the Charles Michel Reforms Group, while Tamar Kordzaia left the party and plans to continue work as a non-faction independent MP.

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