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Georgian March (tr, GM) is a far-right political party and social movement in Georgia. It was founded as an NGO in 2017 following the protests of the same name and transformed into a political party in 2020 ahead of the parliamentary election in the same year. The party is led by Sandro Bregadze.
Georgian March was formed as a nativist social movement for the purpose of furthering anti-immigration legislation. It was primarily known for its rallies and protests. It notably staged an anti-immigration rally on Tbilisi's David Agmashenebeli Avenue in 2017 and took part in the 2018 Georgian protests against the drug liberalization. In the 2020 Georgian parliamentary election, the party received only 0.3% of vote, after which its activities subsided. In 2022, the Georgian March aligned itself with the Alliance of Patriots of Georgia by joining the APG-led United Front of Georgian Patriots.
In response to Georgian March's large anti-immigration rally in July 2017, the Liberalism European Georgia party branded the rally as "pro-Russian" and organised a counter-demonstration under the slogan "No to Russian Fascism". Georgian March responded by initiating a counter-protest of their own where the group physically assaulted the protestors and threw various objects such as eggs, bottles, and brooms at them, injuring several people.
On July 16, 2017, some of the Georgian March leaders were accused of making rape threats towards Tatia Dolidze, former Georgian Youth Delegate to the United Nations. The comments came after Dolidze criticized the movement. Gia Korkotashvili, one of the leaders involved in the scandal, responded by downplaying the seriousness of the comments, stating that they were just profane expressions and not threats.
In October 2017, Georgian March organized protests against the Georgia national football team captain Guram Kashia for wearing an LGBT armband during his match in Dutch club Vitesse Arnhem, calling the Georgian Football Federation to cut him off the national team. Additionally, the group stormed the football match between Georgian and Belarus in Kutaisi in further protest of the matter and burned the LGBT flags, demanding the expulsion of Kashia from the Georgian football team.
In February 2018, Georgian March announced the creation of the "citizen patrol". The purpose of the patrol was to identify breaches of the law by foreigners and hand them over to the police, with the movement justifying their actions by stating that the "Ministry of Internal Affairs is unable to prevent foreign criminals and terrorists from entering the country". In December 2018, following the decision by the Georgian Constitutional Court to lift a ban on foreign citizens buying agricultural land in Georgia, a protest was held by Georgian March and other nationalist groups in front of the Justice House building, where the protestors blocked the entrances.
Georgian March, along with other radical right-wing groups, organized a protest in March 2018 against a journalist Giorgi Gabunia for insulting the sanctity of Jesus Christ. The protests culminated in the demonstrators attacking Gabunia and injuring Rustavi 2 journalist Davit Eradze, which was then followed by the arrest of several members of the said groups.
In May 2018, after the Ministry of Interior raided Bassiani and other nightclubs claiming to have uncovered the illicit drug trade, which led to the protest movement organized by the clubbers for the drug liberalization, the Georgian March and the Georgian Idea staged counter-protests. Few days later the Georgian March and other groups successfully prevented the gay parade from being held in Tbilisi.
Further protests were initiated by Georgian March against Tbilisi Pride and the screening of an LGBT film And Then We Danced in November 2019. The group said that they would protest the screening of the movie by making a "corridor of shame" for those intending to attend the film premiere. The group blocked the entrances to the movie theaters screening the film with them insulting and scaring off viewers interested in the showing. 27 demonstrators were detained for the assault of a gay rights activist and the injuries of two policers.
In March 2020, Georgian March and their allies demanded the removal of a monument depicting a prominent Azerbaijani Bolshevik Nariman Narimanov in the Azerbaijani-majority town of Marneuli located in the southern Georgian region of Kvemo Kartli. The demonstration was called to support the Georgian Orthodox priest in Marneuli who opposed the state renovation of the monument on the grounds of Narimanov being Bolshevik and allegedly playing a significant role in Georgia's territorial losses during the Soviet period.
A further protest was held by Georgian March on 4 June 2020 at the disputed Georgian-Azerbaijani territory near the David Gareji monastery complex. The protests resulted in Bregadze being interviewed by the Georgian Security Service for enflaming "racial discrimination and the kindling of ethnic strife".
Georgian March was transformed into a political party on 2 July 2020. Subsequently, Bregadze was elected as the chairman of the party and Irakli Shikhiashvili, former Head of the State Veterans Office and former Chairman of the Tbilisi City Assembly (2013-2014), as the Political Secretary. Giorgi Gigauri, a journalist for the far-right Asaval-Dasavali newspaper, was appointed Deputy Chairman of the party. Konstantine Morgoshia, a key figure in the movement who according to Bregadze provided half of the finances of Georgian March, left the party prior to the 2020 Georgian parliamentary election and co-founded Alternative for Georgia, which was the predecessor to Conservative Movement.
Georgian March took part in the 2020 parliamentary election and was endorsed by Asaval-Dasavali, one of the largest printed periodicals in Georgia. It received 0.25% of the vote and failed to cross the 1% barrier to be granted representation in the parliament. The party declared the elections as rigged and organized a protest outside the Georgian Dream office, which was reelected to its third term. The party subsequently did not run in 2021 local elections.
Georgian March did not join the protests against Tbilisi Pride held in Tbilisi in July 2021. Bregadze denounced the "violence against journalists" during the protests and stated that Georgian March distanced itself from the protests for this reason. This added to the growing list of differences between Georgian March and the Conservative Movement, which was the main organizer of the demonstrations.
In January 2022, Georgian March deepened its ties with the Alliance of Patriots (APG), signing the United Front of Georgian Patriots.
The central goal of Georgian March is the creation of an ethnically homogeneous state. The party expresses fear over the notion of Georgians becoming an ethnic minority in their own state and has positioned itself to be saviors of the Georgian ethnicity. Its nativist rhetoric is highlighted by their in goal to protect "the interests of native-born inhabitants of a state against immigrants". The movement has called for the deportation of illegal immigrants from the country. It has also opposed the visa liberalization with China in 2023, expressing concerns over possible Chinese mass migration to the country.
Georgian March staged campaigns against the Jewish billionaire philanthropist George Soros and considers him and his institution to be among the main perpetrators of the spread of what they describe as "perversion". The movement has accused the Soros Foundation of financing Tbilisi Pride as well as allocating $220 million for the sabotage the Georgian Orthodox Church. The group believes that Soros dreams about "Georgia without Georgians". In a protest held on 30 July 2020, the group burned an effigy of Soros, calling for the closing of the foundation. Georgian March has rallied against the "political elite, journalistic elite, university elite", considering them to be "privileged" and the mediators of foreign influence alleging links to Soros. Georgian March movement has called for banning the "activities of Soros and other NGOs". It has condemned the foreign-funded NGOs for "pursuing a foreign interest within the state, intervening in sovereign governance, and hindering the democratic development of Georgia". In addition, organizations affiliated with Georgian March claimed that there is a link between 5G and COVID-19 pandemic, appealing to people attending Easter liturgies to switch off their phones in order to prevent "cancer-inducing radiation caused by 5G aerials". The groups have argued that the outbreak is related to Wuhan being one of the first cities in the world to test 5G and that 5G frequencies are to blame for the deaths in the pandemic instead of the virus.
The group believes that Georgia should be a neutral country politically and militarily. In relation to Russia, Bregadze announced the importance of the "careful" policy and said that only through this approach can Georgia reintegrate its Russian-backed separatist republics of Abkhazia and South Ossetia. The Georgian March has been frequently categorized as Russophilia by the media and the reports such as that published by the Estonian Security Services claiming to have uncovered financial connections between the movement and Russia. Some analysts disagree with the pro-Russian labeling and see it as being based on liberal rights groups equating every kind of illiberalism with Russophilia. The group distances itself from the accusation and insists that they see ideological partners not in Russia, but with recent Western right-wing populist movement including Marine Le Pen's National Rally, the Freedom Party of Austria, and leaders like Matteo Salvini, Donald Trump, and Viktor Orban. Some analysts have also noted that the Georgian March has not applied traditional discourses of Georgian pro-Russian groups which see the West as the "biggest evil" and align with Russia to protect Christianity. Moreover, they consider the party to be similar to Western right-wing populist movements rather than Russian political parties.
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