The Democracy Research Center echoes the initiative voiced by Georgian Dream regarding the declaration of Orthodoxy as the state religion and believes that the mentioned issue is an attempt to politically instrumentalize the Church ahead of the elections, the only purpose of which is to influence voters by using religious sentiments.

In the wake of the sharp turn of Georgian Dream in the far-conservative direction in the last two years, religious-national sentiments have intensified in the authorities’ rhetoric, thus the ruling party completely occupied the niche of the extreme pro-Russian far-right wing.

Like the strongly pro-Russian far-right groups, the authorities have politicized issues such as pseudo-religious values, the institution of the family, and issues of gender and sexual identity ahead of the 2024 parliamentary elections. The mentioned directions have been combined in the draft law "On the Protection of Family Values ​​and Minors" introduced in April 2024, which, by using religious sentiments, children's rights, gender identity and other sensitive topics, can be aimed at diverting attention from issues that are particularly important to society.

The sharp increase in the funding of the Patriarchate a few months before the elections also indicates an attempt by the ruling party to use the Church for political purposes. According to the Prime Minister’s decree of March 15, 2024, GEL 35 million was allocated to finance the development fund of the Patriarchate’s educational and cultural events, schools-gymnasiums and vocational colleges. By the decree of August 14, 2024, the St. Andrew the First-Called Georgian University of the Patriarchate of Georgia was financed with GEL 2 million. The payment of "political tribute" to the Patriarchate continued with the decrees of September 13, according to which the Georgian Government gave three plots of land to the Patriarchate. Two of them for GEL 1, and one for free for 99 years. The signs of religious populism can also be seen in the decision of the Government of Georgia relating to the declaration of May 17 - "the day of sanctity of the family and respect for parents" as a holiday.

It is obvious that the goal of Georgian Dream is to attract conservative voters and create exclusivity for them, for which it first of all tries to affiliate with the Church as a powerful institution. Ahead of the elections, in order to gain the support of the Church, Georgian Dream has to pay a kind of "tribute", both in terms of financial and political decision-making.

Georgian Dream has tried to be close to the Church in the recent past as well. A clear example of using religious sentiments was the involvement of clergy in various political events for the 2020 parliamentary elections and the practice of visiting churches by government officials, which continued in the pre-election period of 2024 as well. Clergymen attended the meetings of Georgian Dream in Ozurgeti and Gori. Father Shalva Kekelia and archpriest Besarioni are actively involved in the election campaign of Davit Kodua, the Georgian Dream majoritarian candidate of Zugdidi. They were present at Davit Kodua's pre-election meetings with residents in Rike and Jumi villages.

The village of Jumi, 15 September                        The village of Rike,  4 September                                                      

However, compared to previous years, the attempt to use the Church as a political tool in the 2024 election, took a much wider scale in the form of an initiative to declare Orthodoxy as the state religion, which one of the high-ranking church officials, Metropolitan Nikoloz Pachuashvili of Akhalkalaki, Kumurdo and Kari, assessed as a pre-election proposal of the authorities.

On August 20, three goals became known, which Georgian Dream promises to fulfill in case of getting the constitutional majority. In particular:

1. Removal of the collective National Movement from politics;

2. Enacting anti-LGBT constitutional legislation; and

3. Restoring the territorial integrity of Georgia in a peaceful way.

On August 25, the Honorary Chairperson of Georgian Dream, Bidzina Ivanishvili, during a meeting with supporters in Ambrolauri, repeated the three promises of Georgian Dream and added that there was a fourth point as well: "An existentially important issue for our country and faith, on which active work is underway." 

The Protopresbyter of the Patriarchate, Giorgi Zviadadze, indirectly confirmed on August 27 that Bidzina Ivanishvili's statement implied the initiative to declare Orthodoxy as the state religion: "This is a very correct, very calm and reasoned conversation regarding the legal models between the Church and the State."  On August 28, the Head of the Patriarchate’s Public Relations Service, Andria Jagmaidze, called the Government's initiative to recognize Orthodoxy as the state religion an "act of courtesy" and confirmed that discussion regarding the exact wording of the initiative were actively underway.

On September 1, Protopresbyter Giorgi Zviadadze told the public: "On August 30, a meeting was held between the representatives of the Patriarchate and the leaders of Georgian Dream, where an agreement was reached that the following entry would appear in the first subparagraph of Article 8 of the Constitution of Georgia: "Orthodox Christianity is the pillar of the identity of the Georgian State". Giorgi Zviadadze also confirmed that the Government's initial initiative implied declaring Orthodoxy as the state religion, but this issue was "unacceptable" for the Church.

The Government's initiative to declare Orthodoxy as the state religion was immediately opposed by various church officials. According to Metropolitan Nikoloz Pachuashvili of Akhalkalaki, Kumurdo and Kari: "Declaring Orthodoxy as the state religion means that the Church is not independent from the State and therefore the State is not independent from the Church."

Archbishop Zenon of Dmanisi and Agarak-Tashiri saw the danger of politicized instrumentalization of religion in the Georgian Dream initiative: "This initiative essentially implies the institutional subordination of the Church to the state authorities."

According to Malkhaz Songulashvili, Metropolitan of the Evangelical-Baptist Church of Georgia: "It is impossible for a person to imagine a more rude and wrong form of relationship between religion and the State, such as declaring any religion as the state religion."

Despite the fact that the authorities failed to reach a consensus with the Patriarchate regarding the declaration of Orthodoxy as the state religion, the mentioned issue still represents a clearly dangerous and damaging initiative to democratic processes. The Democracy Research Center believes that there is pre-election speculation by the authorities, as they try to influence public sentiments by using religious sentiments.