Political Career
On 26 December 2008, several days after his return to Georgia, Alasania announced that he was in talks with Georgian opposition and would actively enter Georgian politics. Alasania criticized the government’s handling of recent events, blaming it for "falling into a Russian trap" (a reference to the August 2008 war with Russia). Alasania also called for the creation of strong and transparent democratic institutions. In a subsequent interview on January 25, Alasania called for Saakashvili's resignation and early presidential elections.
On February 16, 2009, Alasania held a press conference, naming members of his group and declared his vision for Georgia's political and economic future. Among people appearing with him as supporters were several former ambassadors including Levan Mikeladze, a former Georgian ambassador to the U.S and the OSCE as well as Switzerland and UN missions in Geneva, Victor Dolidze, who recently quit his post as envoy to the OSCE and Alexi Petriashvili, Georgia’s former ambassador to Turkmenistan and Afghanistan. The lawyer Shalva Shavgulidze was also named as a member of Alasania's team. Representatives from most of Georgian opposition parties attended the presentation; most of them expressed their interest in cooperating with Alasania's newly formed party. Two days after the announcements were made Gia Karkarashvili, former Minister of Defense during the War in Abkhazia, expressed his full support for Alasania's ideas.
On February 23, 2009, Alasania's team joined the Republican and New Rights parties in an alliance called "The Alliance for Georgia". Alasania became the alliance's chairman, while Davit Usupashvili of the Republican Party and Davit Gamkrelidze of the New Rights became co-chairmen. The alliance called on President Saakashvili to agree within next ten days to allow the voters decide whether they wanted early presidential elections through a nation-wide referendum.
On 16 July 2009, the political party Our Georgia – Free Democrats was founded and Alasania was chosen as its chairman. IIn September 2009, the Alasania announced that he would run for Tbilisi mayor’s post in local elections in May 2010.
In February 2012, the Georgian Dream Political Coalition was founded with the Free Democrats as one of three co-founding political parties.
Read more about this topic: Irakli Alasania
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