Lelo, Ana Dolidze, and Liberty Square Unites for Elections

At the presentation of the new union, held at Rike in Tbilisi, Lelo leader Mamuka Khazaradze called the October 26 elections a watershed moment.

"Either we will remain in the swamp, or we will enter the free world with dignity, where our Georgian identity, citizenship, flag, and coat of arms will be held high. Achieving this, along with everything else, requires unity. The battle is significant, and we cannot revitalize Georgia without coming together. The European choice is a national choice. Anyone who says otherwise is either delusional or playing into our enemy's hands. A national choice is precisely what we are making today. We will surely win with unity," said Mamuka Khazaradze.

Ana Dolidze stated that the 300,000 people who gathered at Rike three months ago tasked politicians with changing the government to "finalize the de-occupation of Georgia and implement the geopolitical choice of the Georgian people.”

"This task was set a hundred years ago by our Catholicos-Patriarch, Ambrose Khelaia, who was tortured by the Bolsheviks. In his letter to the international community, he said that we want two things: the de-occupation of Georgia and the opportunity for Georgians to live as we choose. Then and now, Europe was the nation's choice.

Today, we who are here have taken one step towards that task, a step to join forces to make this goal a reality. All of us here may have given up something, put our personal preferences aside, but now is not the time to look for Avtandil, Tariel, Rostevan, Nestan-Darejan, or someone perfect. Today, we all have a very serious job to do," said Dolidze.

Levan Tsutskiridze, who founded Freedom Square two weeks ago with his associates, noted during his speech that the Georgian people demand changes and that the members of the new union have the ambition to be the main creators of these changes. As Tsutskiridze mentioned, they should change at least three things in their country:

"First, we must end the era of cynicism, contempt, envy, hatred, and insults in Georgian politics. We need to restore normal political life. If we manage to do this, we will open up politics to even more talented people and make politics the main driver of the country's development.

The second thing that we need to change is the age of lies and flattery. Georgian Dream, Bidzina Ivanishvili's party, boasts that the economy has grown by 20-25%. To the listeners, have any of your lives improved by at least a quarter lately? Yes, life has improved for some, but those are the elite of the Georgian Dream who are getting rich at the expense of the people.

The third is that one-party rule should be ended and multi-party democracy should be established in Georgia. This is what we are fighting for, and this new coalition and unity is a sign of that. There may be many differences between us, but the fundamental values and vision of the current situation of our country are common, and this foundation is, I think, very solid," said Tsutskiridze.

Opposition political parties form coalitions for parliamentary elections:

• The United National Movement and Strategy Agmashenebeli founded the Unity political platform, joined by political scientist Gia Japaridze, historian Lasha Bakradze, and independent deputies of the parliament, Armaz Akhvlediani and Tamar Kordzaia.
• Separately, Ahali, Droa and Girchi - More Freedom united, though the name of their three-party alliance has not yet been agreed upon.

The ruling party has also started its pre-election campaign. On July 16, Georgian Dream founder and honorary chairman, Bidzina Ivanishvili, stated that the party needs "a particularly solid victory equal to a constitutional majority" in the parliamentary elections to "finally put an end to the war party, agency, radicalism, polarization, and liberal fascism in Georgia."