Georgian March

The Georgian March (ქართული მარში, GM) is a national-conservative political party and social movement in Georgia. It is led by Sandro Bregadze. The party is primarily known for street protests as well as its opposition to LGBT rights and immigration.

Georgian March was formed as a social movement in July 2017 to further anti-immigration legislation. It became a political party in July 2020 and ran in the 2020 Georgian parliamentary election.

History
Georgian March was founded in April 2017 as a public movement. The movement was formed as a response to the highly publicized child abuse case by an Iranian citizen. It started as an informal union of several organizations, that have been labeled neo-Nazi.

It was transformed into a political party on 2 July 2020, led by billionaire Sandro Bregadze, who had previously served in the government of the ruling Georgian Dream Party as Deputy Minister of Diaspora Issues from 2014-2016. Irakli Shikhiashvili, former Head of the State Veterans Office and former Chairman of the Tbilisi City Assembly (2013-2014), was subsequently elected Political Secretary of the party. Giorgi Gigauri, a journalist of the Asaval-Dasavali newspaper, which is known for its homophobic and xenophobic discourse, was appointed Deputy Chairman of the party.

Georgian March took part in the 2020 parliamentary election and received 0.25% of the vote. The party did not cross the 1% barrier to be granted representation in the parliament. The party declared the results illegitimate 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.

Ideology
Analysts view Georgian March as a radical far-right populist and ethno-nationalist movement. Other labels used to describe the group are extreme right-wing, radical or ultra-conservative, ultra-nationalist, national conservative, traditionalist, nativist, and anti-liberal. The party is further labeled as fascist or neo-Nazi, however, some analysts disagree with the latter categorization. The group’s social views are widely seen as homophobic, xenophobic, Islamophobic, and racist. In addition, party’s foreign policy is viewed as being anti-Western and "loyal to Russia". The movements stance on the European Union has been described as hard Euroscepticism.