The ruling Georgian Dream party is adopting an increasingly anti-Western propaganda strategy to deflect attention from its authoritarianism. The Caucasus nation’s bid to join the EU may ultimately be at odds with its peace-mongering rhetoric with Russia.
The party consistently portrays itself as a champion of peace, contrasting it with the opposition, media, NGOs, and Western allies, whom it depicts as warmongers. The core message is constant: the party safeguards peace, while the West advocates war with Russia. The party has used various tactics to justify its non-alignment with Western nations, such as imposing sanctions on Russia and pushing Georgia to open a second front against Moscow. The party has also used investigations into an alleged coup d’état and claimed that USAID had financed revolutionary training sessions in a hotel meeting room.
Ultra-right-wing groups affiliated with the party have recently launched the anti-Maidan movement, pledging to resist street protests against the government. Government propagandists have used the article about making future EU conditions for membership discussions more explicit and stricter to claim that the whole of Georgian civil society opposed EU candidate status. However, Georgia might still get EU candidate status this year, as the overwhelming majority of Georgian people (over 80%) support EU membership. Many civil society organisations play along out of a patriotic desire to see Georgia advance towards the EU towards this goal.
