Ex-Pres Saakashvili calls for unity around Georgia’s national flag ahead of May 26 rally

Georgia’s third president, Mikheil Saakashvili, says the planned May 26 protest rally should unite citizens around Georgia’s national flag rather than partisan slogans.

“Regarding the May 26 demonstration, which I support, I believe we should unite not around party slogans, but around our national five-cross flag, which must once again become the flag of our resistance,” Saakashvili wrote on social media.

He argued that it was incorrect to refer to the five-cross flag as ‘Misha’s flag,’ stressing that it was in fact Georgia’s historic “Davidic flag.”

“Together with this flag, we won the Rose Revolution, built a new Georgian state, and stopped Russia in 2008,” he wrote.

Saakashvili added that modern Georgia became known to the international community under this symbol, and the Georgian people embraced it as a national emblem.

“This is the flag the dictatorship fears as the devil fears the sign of the cross,” he added.

Saakashvili said the same flag should once again serve as the symbol for restoring Georgia’s strength, removing the current government, regaining occupied territories, and securing the country’s future in Europe.

“With this Christian flag, we must fully establish ourselves within Europe,” he stated.

He also stressed that Georgia’s Independence Day on May 26 should not become merely a one-day protest event, but rather evolve into “a consistent and broad protest front for the liberation of Georgia.”