page_title: Bidzina Ivanishvili
section_title: Political career
hierarchical_section_title: Bidzina Ivanishvili / Political career
caption_attribution_description: English: Bidzina Ivanishvili
context_page_description: Bidzina Ivanishvili is a Georgian politician, billionaire businessman and philanthropist, who was Prime Minister of Georgia from October 2012 to November 2013.
  Ivanishvili founded the Georgian Dream-Democratic Georgia party on 21 April 2012. He became the leader of the coalition of opposition parties that he himself had created, which attained victory in the 2012 parliamentary elections. On 25 October 2012, he was elected as the prime minister of Georgia. On 20 November 2013, Ivanishvili voluntarily left the post of prime minister on the basis of an earlier statement and returned to the civil sector. In 2018, he returned to politics and was elected as the chairman of the Georgian Dream-Democratic Georgia party.
  Bidzina Ivanishvili is citizen of Georgia, latter granted by Saakashvili. In March 2010, Ivanishvili was granted another French citizenship. In October 2011, he was deprived of his Georgian citizenship "according to Article 32 of the Georgian Law on Citizenship", shortly after he had announced his intention to form a political party to challenge Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili.
context_section_description: In April 2012, Ivanishvili established the Georgian Dream–Democratic Georgia party with the intention to challenge the ruling United National Movement in the parliamentary election scheduled for October 2012. The Georgian Dream coalition was composed of the Republican Party of Georgia, Our Georgia – Free Democrats, the National Forum, the Conservative Party of Georgia and the Industry Will Save Georgia party. The head of the latter party publicly acknowledged in April 2012 that he doesn't share all of Ivanishvili's views on foreign policy, especially when it comes to joining NATO.
  On 25 October 2012, he was elected as the prime minister of Georgia. During this period, the state Universal Healthcare Program came into force (making emergency surgeries and childbirth free of charge), the reform of the system of self-governance was initiated and the project on rescuing the villages was developed.
  In 2018, Ivanishvili returned to politics and was re-elected as the chairman of the Georgian Dream-Democratic Georgia party.
caption: Ivanishvili in 2013
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