Zurab Japaridze, the libertarian candidate who shakes the Georgia

"The government hates us ", struck with a certain complacency, Zurab Japaridze, a 42 year-old candidate in the presidential election which takes place this Sunday in Georgia. In question, the strategy disruptive of his party which makes a mockery of conventions and laws. Called Girchi, which means " pinecone ", the training shows up for the first time in front of the voters, but already has a certain reputation thanks to the media coverage of his evangelical church. Created in April 2017, it has been ordained in a year and a half, more than 7,000 priests : "and We ensure just that applicants do not have convictions, fascist or discriminatory, we give them a certificate, and they are free," continues the professor of political theory at the skull, slightly receding hairline and the great casual look.

taking Advantage of a legal provision for the orthodox clergy, but also to that of other denominations to be exempted from the compulsory military service, Girchi offers with its worship fake an escape to many young men wishing to avoid a long year of boredom to keep administrative buildings. "The alternative to conscription is to pay a fee. Because of us, millions of laris are not going into the coffers of the State ! "

A pro of communication

Duty, State taxes, these concepts encounter little sympathy from the founder of Girchi. With a handful of other members of parliament, Zurab Japaridze has split the party's pro-western ex-president Mikhail Saakashvili in 2015 to launch a guidance training libertarienne. It is influenced by the legacy of Kakha Bendoukidze, businessman and former minister of economic reforms who died in 2014, a supporter uninhibited free market that is known to have said : "In Georgia, everything is for sale except our conscience ! "When he had almost completed the study of medicine, Zurab Japaridze starts to work in administration at the end of the 1990s. It is here, in observing the widespread corruption that snaps its politicization : "I started reading books on the functioning of the State and the economy, and I fell on authors such as Milton Friedman and Friedrich Hayek. "

" We decided to be present primarily on Facebook and stand out from the other parties in doing surprising things. "

The program Girchi puts the emphasis on the economic freedoms, but also on individual liberties and the rights of minorities. This position attracts an urban youth eager for change, and seduced also by a new way of communicating. "We decided to be present primarily on Facebook and stand out from the other parties in doing surprising things," says the politician to the style laid, but whose actions Mavibet are deemed "provocative" are often the objects of derision by its opponents. This strategic choice gives a campaign novel Girchi to broadcast his propaganda on porn sites, where supporters are organising a happening crazy on Times Square in New York, where the forty-something woman and says he does not believe in God and support gay marriage on the set of the television game show " The lie detector ".

Buzz guaranteed even if it does not allow the teacher to take off in the polls against the three favorites : Grigol Vachadzé, UNM, the party founded by Saakashvili, Davit Bakradze, the party Georgia, european, and Salome Zourabichvili, a diplomat in franco-Georgian, which embodies an application "independent" very ambivalent. As the outgoing president who does not represent the intellectual Guiorgui Margvelachvili, it is supported by the Georgian Dream party, the party of billionaire Bidzina Ivanishvili, which control the country since 2012. Zurab Japaridze hopes to reach 10 % in this presidential election, the issues limited, as Georgia has adopted in 2013 a parliamentary system. But it can already boast a major victory in 2018 : the decriminalization in July of last year the personal consumption of cannabis following a judgment of the constitutional Court after a complaint by the leader libertarian. The government intends to retaliate by adopting a law restricting consumption to the private sphere.

Read also : In Georgia, the personal consumption of cannabis allowed

Last foot of the nose : the candidate Girchi, amateur grass since the age of 15 years old, had been organized as the final meeting is a Festival of cannabis on Sunday, 21 October in the city centre of Tbilisi to protest against this setback and ask for the liberalization of the sale and cultivation of marijuana. The police have prevented the installation of the stands and arrested a dozen activists. Surrounded by a forest of cameras, Zurab Japaridze has had time to say a short speech and distribute three joints before being escorted to the commissioner's office to the jeers and shouts of his supporters. He has found freedom, a few hours later.

Clément Girardot

Date Of Update: 26 October 2018, 19:00