Georgian March
ქართული მარში
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A historical flag of Kingdom of Georgia used by the party as its logo
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| Leader | Sandro Bregadze |
| Secretary-General | Irakli Shikhiashvili |
| Founded | Summer 2017 (as an NGO) July 2020 (as a political party) |
| Headquarters | Tbilisi |
| Membership | 2,000–5,500 |
| Ideology |
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| Political position | Far-right |
| Religion | Georgian Orthodox Church |
| Colors | Black and Red |
| Slogan | Fight for the Georgian identity and for Georgia |
| Seats in Parliament |
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The Georgian March (Georgian: ქართული მარში, romanized: kartuli marshi, GM) is a national-conservative political party and social movement in Georgia. It is led by Sandro Bregadze.[1][5] The party is primarily known for street protests as well as its opposition to LGBT rights and immigration.[6][7]
Georgian March was formed as a social movement in July 2017 to further anti-immigration legislation. It became a political party in July 2020 and ran in the 2020 Georgian parliamentary election.[8]
Georgian March was founded in April 2017 as a public movement.[9] The movement was formed as a response to the highly publicized child abuse case by an Iranian citizen. It started as an informal union of several organizations, that have been labeled neo-Nazi.[10]
It was transformed into a political party on 2 July 2020, led by billionaire Sandro Bregadze, who had previously served in the government of the ruling Georgian Dream Party as Deputy Minister of Diaspora Issues from 2014-2016.[11] Irakli Shikhiashvili, former Head of the State Veterans Office and former Chairman of the Tbilisi City Assembly (2013-2014), was subsequently elected Political Secretary of the party. Giorgi Gigauri, a journalist of the Asaval-Dasavali newspaper, which is known for its homophobic and xenophobic discourse, was appointed Deputy Chairman of the party.[9]
Georgian March took part in the 2020 parliamentary election and received 0.25% of the vote. The party did not cross the 1% barrier to be granted representation in the parliament. The party declared the results illegitimate and organized a protest outside the Georgian Dream office, which was reelected to its third term.[11] The party subsequently did not run in 2021 local elections.[9]
Analysts view Georgian March as a radical far-right populist and ethno-nationalist movement.[12][11][9] Other labels used to describe the group are extreme right-wing, radical or ultra-conservative, ultra-nationalist, national conservative, traditionalist, nativist, and anti-liberal.[9][11][12] The party is further labeled as fascistorneo-Nazi, however, some analysts disagree with the latter categorization.[10][11] The group’s social views are widely seen as homophobic, xenophobic, Islamophobic, and racist.[12][9][10][11] In addition, party’s foreign policy is viewed as being anti-Western and "loyal to Russia".[12][9][11] The movements stance on the European Union has been described as hard Euroscepticism.[12][13]
| Election | Leader | Votes | % | Seats | +/– | Government |
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| 2020 | Sandro Bregadze | 4,753 | 0.25 |
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