AFP/Tbilisi
Tens of thousands of Georgians rallied in the capital yesterday as the ex-Soviet state’s richest man launched his bid to oust President Mikheil Saakashvili’s governing party at elections later this year.
Georgian tycoon and politician Bidzina Ivanishvili takes part in a mass anti-government protest
Supporters of billionaire tycoon turned opposition leader Bidzina Ivanishvili’s Georgian Dream alliance packed into Tbilisi’s Freedom Square for the lavishly-staged rally intended as a show of strength ahead of October’s polls.
“This struggle will end with our victory,” Ivanishvili said after receiving a hero’s welcome from the huge crowd that sprawled out into the capital’s main street, chanting “Bid-zi-na! Bid-zi-na!”
“Saakashvili is a coward who has no arguments except lies and violence,” he said, promising to win EU and Nato membership for the small Caucasus state and lift it out of poverty.
It was the biggest rally since 2009 by an opposition revitalised by the super-rich businessman’s decision to challenge Saakashvili, although opinion polls suggest his alliance trails behind the governing party.
Georgia’s most famous footballer Kakha Kaladze, who recently retired from playing in Italy’s Serie A, told the crowd that Saakashvili must quit.
“Misha (Saakashvili), your time is up. Go!” Kaladze said.
The rally ended with a performance by Ivanishvili’s rapper son Bera, who sang his Georgian Dream anthem as his suited tycoon father waved his fist in the air triumphantly in front of a troupe of young dancers wearing the alliance’s T-shirts.
Before the rally, columns of Ivanishvili supporters marched through the city carrying flags and shouting “Long live Georgia!”
Some accused the country’s pro-Western leader who was swept to power by the 2003 “Rose Revolution” of monopolising power and failing to tackle widespread poverty and unemployment.
“We need real democracy, real freedom, not Saakashvili’s fairy tales,” one participant, unemployed Juliet Tsulaia, said.
“Saakashvili’s social policy is a catastrophe. People are living in humiliating poverty,” said another, nurse Phati Todua.
Ivanishvili, worth $6.4bn (€5.1bn) according to Forbes magazine, was stripped of his Georgian passport for violating citizenship laws after announcing his challenge to Saakashvili last year.
However parliament this month voted to change the constitution to allow EU citizens like Ivanishvili, who holds a French passport, to contest parliamentary polls.
