more than 220 demonstrators arrested, the president asks the EU to “bang the table”

Since then, tens of thousands of demonstrators have gathered every evening to protest against yet another pro-Russian turn by the Georgian Dream government. Founded in 2011 by the oligarch close to Moscow Bidzina Ivanishvili, the party, in power since 2012, claims 53% of the votes and a new victory in the legislative elections last October. But the opposition and NGOs denounce a significant system of fraud put in place by the Georgian Dream, having distorted the result of the election.

220 arrests

Tension has been rising for more than a month in this former Soviet republic of around 3.7 million inhabitants. During the night from Sunday to Monday, the local health ministry announced that 37 people were hospitalized after a fourth evening of violence in the capital.

More than 220 people have been arrested since the protests began. Among them, dozens of journalists but also several opposition figures such as Zurab Japaridze, leader of the “Coalition for Change” movement, the main opposition movement during the last elections.

President Salomé Zourabichvili, a former French diplomat at odds with the government and supporter of the demonstrators, told France Inter that the police are probably “drugged so that their brutality is even more exacerbated”. She assured that she will not leave her post until a “legitimate and constitutional” succession is proposed by the Georgian Dream.

“Challenge for tomorrow’s Europe”

Salomé Zourabichvili also asked the European Union to “bang the table” to keep Georgia in its orbit, the country being a real “stake for the Europe of tomorrow”. “The determination in the streets shows no sign of stopping” according to the president.

The president's term is supposed to end on December 14, and the Georgian Dream wants to propel Mikhail Kavelashvili to this position. This former football player, Georgian international in the 2000s, then launched into politics and notably founded in 2022 the “Power to the People” movement, a pro-Russian far-right party.