Irma Inashvili (born 6 July 1970) is a Georgian politician and journalist. She has been a member of the Parliament of Georgia since November 2016, representing the Alliance of Patriots of Georgia. She is the current deputy chairperson of the Parliament of Georgia. She has also been the general secretary of the Alliance of Patriots of Georgia since 2014. [1] [2]
Inashvili attended high school in Borjomi before studying journalism at Tbilisi State University. She was a correspondent on the ground during the Abkhaz–Georgian conflict. In 2005, she co-founded the Objective Media Union, an opposition media outlet. OMU both recorded television programs and published newspapers; it was blocked from holding a broadcasting license and forced to distribute programs online from 2006 to 2009, but later regained its broadcast license. Inashvili served as both editor (2010-2015) and program director (2010-2014) of the organisation. [2] [1]
Inashvili became involved in the Resistance Movement against President Mikhail Saakashvili in 2010, and was involved in breaking stories about the abuse of prisoners under the Saakashvili government. She later left the Objective Media Union to enter politics, co-founding the Alliance of Patriots of Georgia and from 2014 serving as its general secretary. She was elected to the Parliament of Georgia at the 2016 parliamentary election, and serves as deputy chairperson of parliament and a member of the Human Rights And Civil Integration Committee and State Constitutional Commission. [2] [1]
Politics in Georgia involve a parliamentary representative democratic republic with a multi-party system. The President of Georgia is the ceremonial head of state and the Prime Minister of Georgia is the head of government. The Prime Minister and the Government wield executive power. Legislative power is vested in both the Government and the unicameral Parliament of Georgia.
Claudia Benedikta Roth is a German politician. She was one of the two party chairs from 2004 to 2013 and previously served as one of the vice presidents of the Bundestag. She is currently serving as Federal Government Commissioner for Culture and the Media[de] in the government of Chancellor Olaf Scholz since 2021.
Mikheil Saakashvili is a Georgian and Ukrainian politician and jurist. He was the third president of Georgia for two consecutive terms from 25 January 2004 to 17 November 2013. From May 2015 until November 2016, Saakashvili was the governor of Ukraine's Odesa Oblast. He is the founder and former chairman of the United National Movement party. Saakashvili heads the executive committee of Ukraine's National Reform Council since 7 May 2020. In 2021 he began serving a six-year prison sentence in Georgia on charges of abuse of power and organization of an assault occasioning grievous bodily harm against an opposition lawmaker Valery Gelashvili.
Zurab Zhvania was a Georgian politician, who served as Prime Minister of Georgia and Speaker of the Parliament of Georgia.
United National Movement is a liberal and pro-Western political party in Georgia founded by Mikheil Saakashvili, which rose to power following the Rose Revolution. Since the 2012 parliamentary election, it has been the main opposition party.
Theodora "Dora" Bakoyanni is a Greek politician. From 2006 to 2009 she was Minister of Foreign Affairs of Greece, the highest position ever to have been held by a woman in the Cabinet of Greece at the time; she was also Chairperson-in-Office of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe in 2009. Previously she was the Mayor of Athens from 2003 to 2006, the first female mayor in the city's history, and the first woman to serve as mayor of a city hosting the Olympic Games. She also served as Minister for Culture of Greece from 1992 to 1993.
Irakli Alasania is a Georgian politician, soldier and former diplomat who served as the Minister of Defense of Georgia from 2012 to 2014. He was Georgia's Ambassador to the United Nations from September 11, 2006, until December 4, 2008. His previous assignments include Chairman of the Government of Abkhazia(-in-exile) and the President of Georgia's aide in the Georgian-Abkhaz talks. Soon after his resignation, Alasania withdrew into opposition to the Mikheil Saakashvili administration, setting up the Our Georgia – Free Democrats party in July 2009. In 2012 Alasania was appointed Minister of Defense, a position he held until 2014.
Giorgi Arveladze is a Georgian politician who served as the Minister of Economic Development from 2006 to 2008 under President Mikheil Saakashvili. Arveladze is an ally of Saakashvili and played a central role in the Rose Revolution of November 2003.
In 2007, a series of anti-government protests took place across Georgia. The demonstrations peaked on 2 November 2007, when 40,000–50,000 rallied in downtown Tbilisi, the capital of Georgia. People protested against the allegedly corrupt government of president Mikheil Saakashvili. Protests triggered by detention of Georgian politician Irakli Okruashvili on charges of extortion, money laundering, and abuse of office during his tenure as defense minister of the country were organized by the National Council, an ad hoc coalition of ten opposition parties, and financed by the media tycoon Badri Patarkatsishvili. Demonstrations occurred both in September and November 2007 and were initially largely peaceful. The protests went downhill by 6 November 2007, but turned violent the next day when the police, using heavy-handed tactics, including tear gas and water cannon, unblocked Rustaveli Avenue, Tbilisi's main boulevard, dislodged the protesters from the territory adjoining to the House of Parliament, and prevented the demonstrators from resuming the protests. The government accused the Russian secret services of being involved in an attempted coup d'état and declared a nationwide state of emergency later that day which lasted until 16 November 2007.
Salome Zourabichvili is a French and Georgian politician and former diplomat, currently serving as the fifth president of Georgia, in office since December 2018. She is the first woman to be elected as Georgia's president, a position she will occupy for a term of six years. As a result of constitutional changes coming into effect in 2024, Zourabichvili is expected to be Georgia's last popularly elected president; future heads of state are to be elected indirectly by a parliamentary college of electors.
Dorothee Gisela Renate Maria Bär is a German politician of the Christian Social Union of Bavaria (CSU) who has been serving as a member of the German Bundestag since 2002. From 2014 to 2021, she served in various capacities in the government of Chancellor Angela Merkel.
Vakhtang Balavadze is a Georgian engineer, professor, entrepreneur, and former politician. He was the Minister of Energy and Natural Resources of Georgia from August 13, 2012, to October 25, 2012.
In 2013, Georgia finalized its first-ever peaceful change of power and transition to a parliamentary republic. The Georgian Dream-dominated government, which came to power after defeating, in October 2012, the United National Movement led by the outgoing President Mikheil Saakashvili, promised more democratic reforms. The Georgian Dream candidate Giorgi Margvelashvili won the presidential election in October 2013 and the new constitution significantly reducing the authority of the president in favor of those of the prime minister and government came into effect. In November, the leader of the Georgian Dream, Prime Minister Bidzina Ivanishvili announced his withdrawal from politics as promised earlier, and the Parliament of Georgia approved his nominee, Irakli Garibashvili, as the country's new head of government.
The 2014 Georgian local elections were held on 15 June and 12 July 2014 to elect the councils of local government, sakrebulo, mayors of 12 self-governing cities, as well as the governors, gamgebeli, of 59 municipalities.
Petras Auštrevičius is a Lithuanian liberal politician, diplomat, civil society activist, former member of Seimas, and since 2014, a member of the European Parliament.
The Alliance of Patriots of Georgia is a political party in the republic of Georgia. It was founded in 2012 by leaders from the Resistance Movement, which opposed the government of Mikheil Saakashvili. In the 2014 local elections, it gained an aggregate vote nationwide of 4.6%, exceeding the 4% threshold required to qualify as a political party for government funding. Through party-list voting in 47 cities, it won proportional seat representation on the local councils of 30 municipalities, including Tbilisi. In June 2016, the party formed a bloc with five other parties for the scheduled 2016 parliamentary election, finishing 3rd place in the proportional votе and just passing the electoral threshold of 5%.
The 2017 Georgian local elections were held on 21 October 2017 to elect the bodies of local government of Georgia: 2,058 members of representative councils (sakrebulo) and 64 mayors of municipalities. The votes went into second-round runoffs in six municipalities on 12 November 2017. The ruling Georgian Dream party won in all constituencies under the proportional contest and secured 62 out of 64 mayoral positions.
Tamar (Tako) Charkviani is a Georgian politician, a member of the Parliament of Georgia since 2020, and the founder of the political party Law and Justice.
The 2020–2021 Georgian political crisis was a political crisis in Georgia that resulted from allegations by opposition parties that the 2020 Georgian parliamentary election was rigged. The opposition accused the ruling Georgian Dream party of election fraud and did not recognize the results. They announced protests and parliamentary boycott. The opposition held a rally on November 1, a day after the elections, and called for snap parliamentary elections. On November 2, the eight opposition parties refused to enter parliament. In February 2021, Prime Minister Giorgi Gakharia resigned over plans to arrest opposition leader Nika Melia, which occurred on 23 February.
Nato Chkheidze is a Georgian businesswoman and politician, co-founder of the Omega Group with her husband Zaza Okuashvili, and a member of Parliament in 1999-2004 and since 2020.