The ruling Georgian Dream party plans to withdraw its appeal from the Constitutional Court and submit a “corrected” version that adds the Federalists party to the list of the three opposition forces it already sought to ban in the original appeal, citing the formation of the Opposition Alliance.
Leaders of the Federalist party, however, argue that GD is simply trying to prolong the process through resubmitting a complaint: the Constitutional Court, widely seen as loyal to Georgian Dream, has nine months to review an appeal.
Georgian Dream had appealed to the Constitutional Court in November 2025 to ban three major opposition forces – the United National Movement (UNM), Ahali/Coalition for Change, and Lelo/Strong Georgia – while warning that other smaller groups “closely related” to them could also be targeted.
GD Prime Minister Irakli Kobakhidze had earlier signaled that the appeal could be revised following the creation of the Opposition Alliance, claiming that all parties involved “have practically emerged from the ranks of the United National Movement,” which is already named in the case.
Announcing the ruling party’s decision at an April 20 press briefing in parliament, Georgian Dream Parliament Speaker Shalva Papuashvili said the move follows the unification of what he described as “radical opposition parties” on March 2, referring to the Opposition Alliance of nine parties, including the Federalists, which signed a coordination document to work together against Georgian Dream, which remains in power amid a prolonged political crisis marked by its crackdown on dissent and anti-government protests.
Papuashvili claimed the goals of the parties in the Alliance are “to not recognize the Constitution, to not recognize the constitutional institutions, to undermine elections, and in general to not recognize democratic processes and democracy.”
“We said that this would be grounds for us to revise our constitutional appeal, given that we now have a unified grouping under this declaration that shares the same goals that formed the basis of the constitutional appeal.”
While the Alliance also includes smaller parties similar to the Federalists, such as Freedom Square, which is not being added to the appeal, Papuashvili said the ruling party weighs both “the extent to which a party’s goals are unconstitutional” and “how substantial their influence is on politics.”
“Today the leaders of this alliance are Mikheil Saakashvili, Giga Bokeria and Nika Gvaramia,” Papuashvili claimed, referring respectively to the jailed former president and UNM leader, one of the leaders of the Federalists, and the chair of the Ahali party.
“These are three senior officials of the criminal regime of the United National Movement, who today, once again in the form of a united UNM alliance, are trying to turn the country into a puppet state,” Papuashvili added.
Reacting to the decision, Tamar Chergoleishvili, one of the leaders of the Federalists party, said it “does not change anything” for the party, adding that “as long as one party is being banned, regardless of our attitude toward that party, we believe the political process is dying and we will not take part in any formal political processes and will not become part of regime decoration.”
Chergoleishvili argued that Georgian Dream “needed” to take this step “because the nine-month deadline expires,” during which the Constitutional Court may review the appeal. “They do not have the capacity to ban those three parties, so they need a new timeframe. That is why they withdrew the nine-month one and submitted a new one so that a new deadline can start running,” she said, calling the move “a demonstration of the regime’s weakness.”
The Federalists party was launched ahead of the October 2024 parliamentary elections after splitting from European Georgia due to internal conflict linked to party primaries. It did not take part in the elections as a result. The party is led by Tamar Chergoleishvili and her husband, Giga Bokeria, a former senior official in the UNM government. It was officially registered in March 2025 after an earlier rejection by the public registry, following a move in which the party deliberately submitted the same statute as Georgian Dream to complete the registration process.
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