The protest extends to Georgia. For the fourth evening in a row, tens of thousands of people demonstrated on Sunday 1is December, to protest against the government's decision on Thursday to suspend the accession process to the European Union (EU) until 2028. The mobilization was strengthened in large cities, in Tbilisi, Batumi, Gori, Zugdidi and Kutaisi. More unusually, demonstrations also broke out in small, peaceful towns like Khashuri, Lagodekhi or Ozourgeti. In the village of Daba Jvari, at the foot of the mountains, demonstrators blocked the Zugdidi-Mestia highway, chanting “No to the Russian regime!” » et “Georgia’s future is the EU!” ».
Alongside the protests, hundreds of officials, including from the foreign affairs, defense and education ministries, as well as judges, issued joint statements in protest. More than a hundred schools and universities have suspended their activities. Some 160 Georgian diplomats also criticized the government's decision, saying it was unconstitutional and led to “in international isolation” of the country. Many Georgian ambassadors have resigned, notably in the United States, the Netherlands, Bulgaria and Lithuania, and several prominent Georgian athletes have expressed their concern.
Violence
Repression has also become tougher. In the capital, the police tried to disperse the gatherings with water cannons and tear gas, but also with rubber bullets, according to the Formula channel – which Tbilisi denies. Protesters and journalists were beaten. This violence, denounced in Washington and Brussels, seems to have pushed even more Georgians into the streets. In Tbilisi, demonstrators erected barricades and fired fireworks at the police. More than 200 people were arrested, and 44 hospitalized (27 demonstrators, 16 police officers and a journalist), the interior ministry announced on Sunday. Rights defender Levan Ioseliani, who visited detained protesters in Tbilisi, denounced the “cruelty” of the police
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The pro-European president, Salomé Zourabichvili, who supports the protesters, engaged in a direct standoff with the government by announcing on Saturday that she refused to leave her post – her mandate expires in mid-December. She considers that the new Parliament, which must elect the next president on December 14, is “illegitimate” because the legislative elections of October 26 were “rigged”and because the constitutional court, which she contacted to cancel the vote, has not yet ruled. “An illegitimate Parliament cannot elect the president, she declared. Therefore, there will be no inauguration and my mandate will continue until there is a legitimately elected Parliament, which will legitimately elect the one who succeeds me. »
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