Authors

Nino Khelaia¹;  ¹ Freie Universität Berlin, Germany

Discussion

In recent decade, the terms “far-right,” “far-right extremism” or “ultra-nationalism” have been applied more and more frequently in Georgia to designate sets of political ideas of various groups operating in the country formally or informally. Typically used without clear explanation or definition, these terms gradually became established in mainstream media, civil society organizations, activist groups, within certain political parties and lately also among scholars to refer to the very broad and heterogenous groups of illiberal actors critical to some of the political and cultural aspects of Europianization. Yet, the culmination moment for applying such nomination strategy happened following July 5, 2021, when semi-spontaneous illiberal mobilization took place in the capital Tbilisi, protesting the planned event of the LGBTQ union -Tbilisi Pride. By the end of the day, the demonstration evolved into physical clashes in different parts of the city in what was later widely labeled as “the battle between journalists and the violent pro-Russian fascist protest activists. 

By applying the critical discourse analytical tools, this paper seeks to establish some of the key features of mainstream narrative about “far-right” groups and its political and ideological components. One of the main goals is to explore specific methodological tools for examining validity of the proposition that by relying on the strong pro-Western consensus that exist among political elites in Georgia, the existing nomination strategy of far-right instrumentalizes nomination in order to exclude certain groups critical to “Westernisation” processes from democratic politics and participation. Against the mainstream narrative of seeing July 5 protest in terms “far-right” or “fascist” politics, and without attempting to tackle the popular reaction as a protest action incorporating any well-thought emancipatory and progressive potential, the work will conceptualise the protest movement as a reaction of decades long institutionally established right-wing politics, which through various institutional and ideological mechanisms has divided Georgian society with hierarchical markers and produced decades long institutional, structural and symbolic violence that has eventually evolved into physical violence in the streets of Tbilisi on July 5.