pro-EU demonstrations continue, 224 arrests since the start of the mobilization

pro-EU demonstrations continue, 224 arrests since the start of the mobilization
pro-EU demonstrations continue, 224 arrests since the start of the mobilization

Protesters threw fireworks inside the building, targeting the many broken windows and each time provoking shouts of joy from the crowd.

Gatherings that do not run out of steam. The pro-Western president of Georgia Salomé Zourabichvili insisted on Monday December 2 that the mobilization of the street was not weakening, after a fourth night of demonstrations punctuated by clashes to demand new legislative elections and denounce the decision of the authorities to suspend the ambitions of integration of the country into the EU.

“Another impressive night during which Georgians firmly defended their Constitution and their European choice,” she wrote on X, sharing images of the previous day’s rally.

“The determination in the streets shows no sign of stopping,” assured the president of this Caucasian country.

Tens of thousands of demonstrators

The Georgian Dream party, in power since 2012 and accused by its opponents of pro-Russian authoritarian drift, triggered a new wave of mobilization on Thursday by postponing any integration negotiations in the European Union until 2028.

However, this objective is so precious that it is enshrined in the Constitution of this former Soviet republic. This movement occurs while the authority of the Georgian Dream party is highly contested by the opposition, which accuses it of having “stolen” the legislative elections of October 26.

On Sunday evening, for the fourth night in a row, tens of thousands of demonstrators gathered waving European flags until late in Tbilisi, the capital, and other cities.

The situation became tense in the evening around the Parliament in Tbilisi. Protesters threw fireworks inside the building, targeting the many broken windows and each time provoking shouts of joy from the crowd.

224 arrests

They were finally dispersed with water cannons and tear gas by the police, towards whom some of them fired different projectiles.

The Interior Ministry announced Monday that 21 police officers were injured, some of them “seriously”, during the demonstrations and clashes the day before.

In total, 224 people have been arrested since the start of the rallies last week, the ministry added in a press release.

The demonstrators accuse the police of violence against them. “They are angry, they beat us, they spray us” but “we don’t care,” Lika, 18, told AFP on Sunday as police tried to disperse the crowd.

The movement does not have a clear leader, but the Georgians gathered on Sunday said they were determined to continue to defend Georgia's European path.

“Pro-Russian government”

Georgians march for the EU as much as against neighboring Russia, with crowds regularly chanting slogans hostile to Moscow.

The country, nestled on the shores of the Black Sea, remains traumatized by the Russian invasion of 2008, during a brief war. Georgia has been going through a political crisis since the Georgian Dream party declared victory in the legislative elections at the end of October.

The opposition, and pro-Western President Salomé Zourabichvili, believe the vote was tainted by fraud, and the EU has called for an investigation. Prime Minister Irakli Kobakhidze, for his part, categorically ruled out organizing new elections.

Salomé Zourabichvili announced on Saturday that she would refuse to give up her mandate at the end of the year, as planned, as long as a new vote did not take place.

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