Herman Szabo (Georgian: ჰერმან საბო, Herman Sabo; born on November 19, 1988) is a Georgian libertarian activist and politician, who has served as a member of Parliament since 2021. His political views have gathered significant media coverage, including his support for the legalization of cannabis and his opposition to military conscription. He is a member of Girchi, a Georgian libertarian political party. Biography Early life and activism Herman Szabo was born on November 19, 1988 in Tbilisi, at the time the capital of Soviet Georgia. Of Hungarian origins from his father's side, his mother was from Tskhinvali and his family home was destroyed during the 2008 Russo-Georgian War. In 2012, he graduated from Tbilisi State University with a degree in political science, paying for his studies by working in the hospitality sector. After graduating, he joined the public relations sector, working for various media companies from 2012 to 2015, including Channel 9, Tabula, and as a copywriter for an ad agency. Also in 2012, he founded the political satire blog ასე იტყოდა ზარათუშთრა ("Thus Spoke Zarathustra"), which gained a major online following. In 2019, he co-founded the cryptocurrency platform and online developer program Bitcamp. Political activism In 2015, Herman Szabo joined a group of libertarian politicians who decided to form a political union, which would become Girchi a year later, with Szabo as head of public relations. One of the libertarian party's most well-known figures, he was its nominee for the 2019 special parliamentary election in the Mtatsminda District, where he was one of eleven candidates, including former MP Shalva Shavgulidze (Free Democrats), former Tbilisi Assembly chairman Lado Kakhadze (Georgian Dream), and former Conservative MP Koba Davitashvili. In a sign of protest against the majoritarian electoral system, Girchi organized a campaign to register its supporters as Mtatsminda voters, although the move was pushed back by the Ministry of Justice. Receiving 4.8% of the vote, he refused to endorse anyone in the runoff. Szabo was actively involved in the 2019 demonstrations in protest of the perceived pro-Russian foreign policy course of the Georgian government. At the time, he called for fully proportional elections and for the release of Giorgi Rurua, an activist of the United National Movement arrested during the protests. In 2020, he was one of the plaintiffs, along with fellow Girchi members Zurab Japaridze and Ana Chikovani, in a failed constitutional lawsuit against gender-based quotas in electoral lists. During