Irakli Kobakhidze
Prime Minister, Georgia, Government of Georgia
rakli Kobakhidze is a Georgian politician currently serving as the Prime Minister of Georgia since 2024. He is a Georgian constitutional scholar and politician, who has previously served as Speaker of the Parliament of Georgia from 2016 to 2019 and was a Member of Georgian Parliament from 2016 to 2024. He held the post of Chairman of Georgian Dream party and Parliament’s majority leader from 2021 to 2024. From 2020 to 2022, Kobakhidze served as vice-president of Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe. Under Kobakhidze’s leadership as a Chairman of the Parliament of Georgia, the Parliament strengthened its international ties – the Parliament was actively involved in the implementation of the non-recognition policy of the Russian-occupied territories of Georgia; the Parliamentary Assemblies of Georgia-Ukraine-Moldova and Georgia-Poland were established; strategic cooperation agreements were signed with a number of the Parliaments of the partner countries. In 2017–2018, under his leadership, the Georgian Parliament implemented a wide-scale constitutional reform. Kobakhidze served as Chairman of the State Constitutional Commission and the editor of the Constitution of Georgia. The reform established a parliamentary system of government in Georgia. The same amendments transitioned Georgia's parliamentary elections to a fully proportional system by 2024, increased the Prime Minister's executive powers, abolished direct presidential elections, strengthened the role of Parliament and the political rights of the opposition, advanced the constitutional guarantees of human rights, independence of the judiciary and local self-government, stipulated that Georgia should be a welfare state, as well as reinforced Georgia's pro-EU and pro-NATO foreign policy. Kobakhidze graduated from the Law Faculty of Tbilisi State University in 2000. Later, from 2002 to 2006, he advanced his legal education at the University of Dusseldorf, Germany, where he was awarded the LLM and PhD degrees. Since 2006 and prior to joining politics, Kobakhidze has worked with international organizations and academic institutions. For several years, he held expert and managerial positions at the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP). Simultaneously, he held academic positions at the Tbilisi State University and Caucasus University. Kobakhidze is fluent in Georgian, English, German and Russian. He is married with two children.
