political party in Georgia exploits conflict in Ukraine for electoral gains
In the ongoing 2025 local elections in Georgia, the ruling party, Georgian Dream, has faced criticism for its campaign strategy that uses images from Ukraine's war against Russia. The party has been accused of exploiting these images to position itself as the guarantor of peace and stability, while implicitly blaming Ukraine for provoking the war.
The campaign videos, aired during the elections, show bombed Ukrainian cities and contrast them with restored building facades, parks, and roads in Georgia. This tactic aims to portray Georgian Dream as the safeguard of peace and prosperity, a narrative that was notably used in the 2024 parliamentary elections and has been revived for the 2025 local elections.
The opposition parties, however, have strongly criticised this approach as tone-deaf and misleading. They have accused Georgian Dream of turning Tbilisi into a "city of death," drawing attention to local tragedies such as the death of a child by electrocution in Vake Park, ironically featured in the campaign footage.
The Ukrainian Ministry of Foreign Affairs has also condemned Georgian Dream for using images of Ukraine's war damage for political gain, labelling the practice as unacceptable and cynical. Kyiv described these campaigns as "unfriendly acts" that demonstrate contempt for the Ukrainian people and criticised Georgian authorities for appearing to grovel before Moscow and neglecting Georgia's historical dignity and independence.
Despite the international and domestic criticism, the Georgian Dream party has remained unyielding in its stance and electoral strategy. The party's main slogan for the Tbilisi mayoral race is "Choose peace," a call to voters to support Georgian Dream in the pursuit of stability.
This strategy, however, is not without controversy. The death of Marita Meparishvili, a 13-year-old girl who died from an electric shock in Vake Park, Tbilisi, on October 13, 2022, has been a subject of negative reactions on social media. Some social media users have expressed discontent with the use of footage of the fountain in Vake Park, where Marita tragically lost her life, in the campaign.
The opposition parties have been quick to bring up such incidents in their campaign, using them to question the ruling party's commitment to the safety and well-being of its citizens. The death of Marita Meparishvili is just one of several serious incidents that have occurred in Tbilisi in recent years, raising questions about the Georgian Dream party's claims of turning the city into a peaceful haven.
In summary, Georgian Dream's recurrent use of Ukraine's war imagery in its campaigns is a strategic effort to position itself as the peace-keeping, stable ruling party, despite international condemnation and domestic criticism. This tactic serves both to undermine Ukraine's government and to exploit fears around conflict for electoral advantage.
- Amidst the criticism, the Georgian Dream party persists with its strategic use of war imagery, not only from Ukraine but also local incidents like Marita Meparishvili's death, to portray itself as a guararantor of peace and stability in the local elections.
- The politicians in opposition parties have countered this strategy by highlighting such incidents, questioning the ruling party's commitment to the general health, safety, and well-being of its citizens in Georgia.
- The policy-and-legislation and politics landscape in Georgia is marked by continuous debates on health, war-and-conflicts, and general-news issues, with international concerns arising around the intersection of these topics in the ongoing local elections.
