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Georgia could restore their monarchy

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Updated on July 9, 2021

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During a Sunday sermon, Ilia II, the Catholicos-Patriarch of Georgia as a whole, brought up an issue that he had brought up many times in recent years: The Patriarch advocated for the restoration of Georgia’s constitutional monarchy.

“Georgia is an ancient country with an ancient culture. Perhaps, we should consider who we were in the past, who we are today and who we will be in tomorrow. Perhaps, we should remember that Georgia is one of the oldest monarchies. In the past, the king was our guardian under the aegis of God. Today, there are lots of kings who reign but not rule. This is what we call constitutional monarchy and this is what can give peace to a country,” he said at Sameba Cathedral.

On June 19, Parliamentary Chair Irakli Kobakhidze and Parliament’s Legal Issues Committee Head Eka Beselia met with the Patriarch to discuss the proposal. Beselia acknowledged that a referendum on the matter may be held, saying that the Patriarch’s proposal is a “notable idea,” but that “people must first understand the idea.”

It’s not the first time the head of the Georgian Orthodox Church has pushed for the country’s constitutional monarchy to be restored. Until recently, this topic was mainly confined to clever jokes on Facebook social media, but things have changed this time – government officials actively participated in a discussion about reinstating the monarchy literally the day following the Patriarch’s remark.

Ilia II proposed restoring the Bagrationis monarchy for the first time in 2007. For that reason, he proposed raising up a good monarch. Temur Zhorzholiani founded a conservative (monarchic) party much earlier, in 1989. Gayoz Mamaladze and his opposition nationalist party founded the Monarchic Club in the early 2000s. Those individuals are no longer alive.

The constitutional monarchy will attach individuality, originality, and special appeal to Georgia, according to Mamuka Mdinaradze, the leader of the ‘Georgian Dream’ group. Salome Zourabichvili, an independent MP with ties to government circles, thinks that constitutional monarchy is Georgia’s only path to European membership.

The Georgian Patriarch has made significant contributions to the restoration of monarchy in Georgia, despite Ilia II’s assertion that the process would take years.

Opposition and civil society organizations have been harshly critical of the proposal. Gigi Ugulava of the opposition European Georgia party said, “Constitutional Monarchy cannot and will not be restored.”

“This tradition has long ceased to exist and it’s impossible to restore it artificially. I doubt that Georgia actually needs it. There are many more serious problems that our country is facing. Thus, the government would better address those problems,” said Gigi Ugulava, a member of the opposition ‘European Georgia’.

“The reason the ruling team has taken up this initiative is to prevent us from focusing on real problems in this country. It’s obvious for us, as well as for His Holiness, the Patriarch of Georgia, that Ivanishvili’s unofficial ruling has led the country to a blind alley,” Salome Samadashvili, a member of the United National Movement, stated.

The monarchy, according to Nika Rurua of the United National Movement, is an obsolete form of government. “Monarchy is the rule of one family, while democracy means the rule of all people. So, I object to the idea to restore monarchy in Georgia,” Rurua said.

Georgia’s administration, which has a constitutional majority in parliament, is making significant revisions to the country’s constitution, which are now being debated in parliament. One of the amendments proposes giving parliament more authority over the president. The administration believes that the president’s powers should be limited as Georgia tries to establish the model of a parliamentary republic. Several civil society organizations and opposition parties, on the other hand, have accused the government of attempting to eliminate resistance from a president they claim provides a counterbalance to the government’s constitutional majority.

Following the fall of the Soviet Union in the early 1990s, the first talks about the restoration of the monarchy in Georgia started. This issue has come up again and again since then, but it has never been taken seriously.

So, the issue is if this initiative is feasible and whether it can provide Georgia any actual benefits. Georgia is not the United Kingdom, nor is it Sweden, nor is it Norway, nor is it even Spain. What is normal in certain European countries is completely unnatural in Georgia.