Georgia plunged into its post-election crisis on Friday after the police dispersed pro-European demonstrators denouncing the decision of the government, accused of pro-Russian authoritarian drift, to suspend integration efforts into the European Union until 2028.
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A new demonstration is planned for 7 p.m. local time (3 p.m. GMT) on Friday.
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 Zourabishvili.
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 many Georgians consider Russia, which invaded in 2008, as a threat, and the West as a bulwark.
If the government still claims to have the intention of joining the EU, it announced Thursday evening that it would postpone the question until the end of 2028.
The move led thousands of pro-European 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.
According to the Interior Ministry, “43 people were arrested by law enforcement for disobeying lawful police orders and for vandalism.” According to this information, 32 police officers were injured “following the illegal and violent actions of the demonstrators”.
Two members of the opposition Coalition for Change party, Elene Khoshtaria and Nana Malachkhia, were injured in the clashes. The first had a broken arm, while the second had a broken nose, the party said.
The PEN Center in Georgia announced that prominent poet Zviad Ratiani was among those arrested and called for his immediate release.
“Repression”
Georgia has been going through a period of political turbulence since the contested victory of the Georgian Dream in the legislative elections at the end of October.
The opposition is boycotting the new Parliament and demonstrations follow one another, so far without forcing the government to bend.
The pro-Western president Salomé Zourabichvili, at odds with the government, but who only has limited powers and whose mandate ends this year, is demanding that the Constitutional Court annul the results of the legislative elections, a request which has little chance to succeed.
She denounced the “repression” of the demonstrations and called for a “firm reaction from European capitals”.
On Thursday, the European Parliament adopted a resolution rejecting the election results, 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 and “certain European politicians” 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 [ses] national interests and [ses] traditional values.
