United National Movement
The United National Movement, is a liberal-conservative political party in Georgia. Tina Bokuchava serves as the party's chairman, while its honorary chairman Mikheil Saakashvili is considered the de facto leader. The UNM's electoral number is 5.
The UNM was founded by Saakashvili in 2001, in opposition to Eduard Shevardnadze's government, rising to power following the Rose Revolution in 2003. During its nine-year rule, the UNM implemented several major reforms. The government focused on rooting out corruption and crime, establishing a free market economy, pursuing a pro-Western foreign policy, and regaining territorial integrity. The latter two put it in direct conflict with Russia exploding into a full-on war in 2008 that resulted in 20% of Georgia's territory being occupied by Russia to this day.
During its second term, accusations mounted over the UNM's alleged authoritarian tendencies with its detractors highlighting poor prison conditions, violent protest dispersals, and media and business intimidation as issues. This culminated in the Gldani prison scandal with several videos being released showing prison guards torturing, taunting, and sexually assaulting detainees. The UNM subsequently lost the 2012 parliamentary election to Georgian Dream. It has since served as the main opposition party frequently criticizing the government for what it sees as its pro-Russia policies.
Since 2025, the party has been undergoing a trial in the Constitutional Court of Georgia, which could possibly lead to outlawing of the party.
History
Early years
Foundation
, the founder of United National Movement, had his start in the political party Union of Citizens of Georgia of the president Eduard Shevardnadze. He was elected to the parliament in 1995 soon joining the team of so-called "young reformers" within the party led by Zurab Zhvania.Opposition
By the late 90s, a rift was also growing between the "young reformers" and the establishment factions in CUG. The division was intensified following the 2000 presidential election. Saakashvili, who at the same time had served as the country’s justice minister, left CUG and established the opposition National Movement party, the predecessor to UNM. Zhvania, along with another prominent member of the "young reformers" team Nino Burjanadze also split in 2002 creating the United Democrats party.At the same time, the government’s popularity drastically decreased being attributed to its inability to exert territorial control over the country, weak economic growth, and lack of development of public infrastructure. The 2002 local elections marked a turning point for CUG where it achieved a crushing defeat getting less than 2% in Tbilisi Sakrebulo. National Movement led by Saakashvili got a quarter of the votes in the election with him being elected the chairman of the Sakrebulo.
Despite the elections held under CUG’s rule being generally viewed as irregular, the scale of the fraud was described as not being enough to change the outcome of an election. This changed in 2003 parliamentary election which was widely viewed as fraudulent. Parallel voting tabulations had shown an overwhelming opposition victory despite the official results claiming otherwise. In the official results, National Movement achieved 18,74% of the vote winning 42 seats.
Rose Revolution
National Movement and Burjanadze-Democrats organized mass rallies in protest of the official results demanding the government either recognize the opposition's victory or resign. Some other significant opposition forces such as Labour Party and New Rights Party chose to abstain from the protests. The opposition and the government faced off on the first session of the new parliament forcing MPs and Shevardnadze, who was delivering a speech, to leave the room. The following day, Shevardnadze made the decision to resign as president making Burjanadze, the speaker of the parliament, the new interim president. Days later, the Georgian Supreme Court declared the results as invalid. This event was later known as the Rose Revolution.Saakashvili emerged as the clear leader from the protests, with him winning an overwhelming victory in the snap 2004 presidential election, where he ran virtually uncontested. National Movement and United Democrats later merged with them forming United National Movement. The party went on to win 66.24% in the 2004 parliamentary election.
First term (2004-2008)
Government reforms
Reforming a weak and corrupt state was a central goal of the Rose Revolution government. The salaries given out to state employees were so low, that based on the wages an employee could not theoretically survive. This led to government officials having to take bribes and engage in other corrupt practices to sustain themselves. In 2004, UNM introduced the Reform and Development Fund which raised salaries to several thousand top officials with it being funded by international donors and Georgian businesses. Salary increases were later expanded to law and military officials. This attracted a number of qualified young people to work for the government when previously they would be relegated to working abroad or for Non-Governmental Organizations.Another way UNM tried to fight corruption was through the prosecution of former major government officials for it. The officials would have to pay a large fine covering for the embezzled sums of money after which they would be let go. Most of those arrests were made in early 2004 after which the government focused on middle-level officials. This process, however, was widely criticized by international organizations, including the Council of Europe, for giving the prosecution too much arbitrary power and not following due process.
Other ways of fighting corruption included disbanding the Traffic Police, which was widely known as one of the most corrupt institutions in Georgia, and replacing it with the new Patrol Police, which enjoyed significantly more popularity. Additionally, standardized exams were introduced with them being the only way to be admitted to the Universities. The old system had been notoriously corrupt with people often being accepted based on bribes. The new system has been widely recognized as fair. In aspects where the government felt it did not have the resources to reform the corrupt institutions, it had to controversially scrap them with the likes of mandatory inspection of cars being suspended. The government further cracked down on organized crime, with it in 2005 criminalizing belonging to a criminal organization.
Another achievement of the UNM government would be its more efficient tax-collecting policy. Previously, the "shadow economy" accounted for 70% of the economy with the government only collecting 10% of the GDP in public revenue, the lowest in the post-Soviet states. The bigger budget allowed the government to finance spending on road repairs, repainting the façades of buildings, and the reintroduction of free medical emergency services.
File:Zurab zhavnia senate.JPG|thumb|Zurab Zhvania, the first Prime Minister under the new constitution
UNM also implemented government reforms establishing the role of the Prime Minister and giving the President the ability to dissolve the parliament. The role of the presidency was substantially increased with the system being sometimes referred to as "super-presidential". Its supporters argued that a stronger presidency was needed to more effectively push for reforms, while its critics denounced the concentration of power. Additionally, some international organizations such as the Council of Europe were critical of the reforms and pushed for the parliament to be given equal weight to the presidency.
Some progress was made in the area of democracy and human rights, although, critics highlighted systematic issues carried over from Shevardnadze’s administration. The 2004 parliamentary and presidential elections were described by OSCE-ODIHR as "the most democratic since independence". In 2005, UNM passed reforms on local governance designating Rayon as the singular level of local governance. However, some criticized the reforms as insufficient and as "not leaving local governments enough resources to create viable institutions". The same year, UNM decriminalized defamation, making it harder to sue journalists for critical coverage. Additionally, violence against minorities was curtailed.
However, during UNM’s tenure media freedom was often criticized. In January 2005, the Council of Europe designated the country as being subject to "self-censored media" with it in 2006 noting that the "media is financially weak and still lacks the democratic culture which would allow it to credibly perform their role of a democratic watchdog". Some additionally alleged that opposition voices were taken off the air due to government pressure. However, others saw the media legislation as being liberal and Georgian media being free to criticize the government and host its opponents.
Economic and social reforms
The new government pursued economically liberal policies. Under the Shevardnadze government, Georgia already pursued free market percepts recommended by the International Monetary Fund, however, the Saakashvili administration restarted the massive privatization and accelerated all those policies. In 2004, Kakha Bendukidze, a Russian-based Georgian businessman and prominent free market advocate, was appointed by Saakashvili as a Minister of Economics. In 2004, Bendukidze notoriously said he would "sell everything but Georgia’s conscience" with his goal being closing down his own ministry and demolishing all economic regulation by the state.Bendukidze implemented radical tax system reforms. Under him, a flat 12% tax rate was introduced with the overall number of taxes being reduced from 21 taxes to 6. Additionally, rapid privatization of state assets was implemented, and Georgia's economy was opened to foreign investment and global markets with few restrictions or regulations. Supporters of Bendukidze praise the rapid economic growth and business-friendly environment that was created due to his reforms, while his detractors point out the unequal distribution of that growth among the population.
The Saakashvili administration pushed liberal social policy reforms, which put it in discord with the conservative values of the Georgian population. In 2005, the parliament took steps to take religion out of public education, passing the General Education Act, that restricted the teaching of religion in schools and the use of religious symbols in the school space for devotional purposes.