Georgia plunged into its post-election crisis on Friday after the arrest of around forty pro-European demonstrators opposed to the government, accused of pro-Russian authoritarian drift.
At 7:00 p.m. (3:00 p.m. GMT) local residents began to gather in the center of Tbilisi for a new demonstration called by the opposition.
This Caucasian country, accustomed to political crises, has been in turmoil since the legislative elections of October 26 won by the ruling Georgian Dream party, but denounced as tainted by irregularities by the pro-Western opposition and the president, Salomé Zourabichvili .
The Georgian Dream and the government that emerged from it are accused by their detractors of diverting this former Soviet republic from its ambition to join the European Union and, on the contrary, of wanting to bring Tbilisi closer to Moscow, while some of the Georgians view Russia, which invaded in 2008, as a threat and the West as a bulwark.
If the authorities still assure that they intend to join the EU in 2030, they announced Thursday evening to postpone the question until the end of 2028.
The move led thousands of pro-EU opposition supporters to take to the streets in protest, gathering in the capital Tbilisi and other cities overnight.
On Thursday evening and Friday morning, riot police fired rubber bullets and used tear gas and water cannons, hitting demonstrators and journalists in front of Parliament, an AFP journalist noted.
Opposite, the demonstrators had erected barricades which they set on fire.
– “Repression” –
According to the Interior Ministry, “43 people were arrested”. According to him, 32 police officers were injured “as a result of the illegal and violent actions of the demonstrators.”
The opposition is boycotting the new Parliament and demonstrations follow one another, so far without forcing the government to bend.
Pro-Western President Salomé Zourabichvili, in rupture with the government, has only limited powers and her mandate ends this year, but she demands that the Constitutional Court annul the results of the legislative elections, a request which has little chance of being met. ‘achieve.
She denounced the “repression” of the demonstrations and called for a “firm reaction from European capitals”.
The Council of Europe for its part “strongly condemned” the “brutal repression of demonstrations” in Tbilisi, also expressing alarm at the decision of the Georgian government to postpone its European ambitions to 2028.
Ukraine also said it was “disappointed” by this decision, even though this country experienced a pro-European revolution in 2014 after the pro-Russian authorities at the time attempted to suspend the EU integration process. .
“This decision, as well as the use of force against a peaceful demonstration, demonstrates the limitation of democratic processes in the country to please Moscow,” denounced Ukrainian diplomacy.
– “Blackmail” –
On Thursday, the European Parliament adopted a resolution rejecting the results of the legislative elections in Georgia, denouncing “significant irregularities”.
The text demands that a new election be organized within a year under international supervision and that sanctions be taken against senior Georgian officials, including Prime Minister Irakli Kobakhidze.
In response, the latter, in office since February and confirmed Thursday by MEPs, accused the European Parliament of “blackmail”.
Despite the decision to postpone the country’s European ambitions to 2028, it nevertheless committed to continuing to implement the reforms necessary to “become a member state in 2030”.
Georgia officially obtained candidate status for membership in December 2023, but Brussels has since frozen the process, accusing the Georgian Dream government of carrying out serious democratic backsliding.
The Prime Minister, who already criticized the EU and the United States for wanting to drag Georgia into the war between Russia and Ukraine, asked Thursday, before the deputies, that Brussels “respect” Georgian national interests and its “traditional values”.
