Prime Minister Irakli Khobadidze assured that his government would make “maximum efforts” to integrate this Caucasian country into the European Union, while he himself announced last week that he would suspend membership ambitions, provoking these large-scale protests. “No negotiations” with the opposition, he decided. During a press conference, he also raised the specter of external interference, maintaining that the demonstrations were financed “from abroad”. Regardless, “there will be no revolution in Georgia,” he warned.
Negotiations with the Union postponed to 2028
The Georgian Dream party, in power since 2012 and accused by its opponents of a pro-Russian authoritarian drift, triggered a new wave of mobilization on Thursday by postponing any negotiations on integration into 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 takes place while the authority of the Georgian Dream is highly contested by the opposition, which accuses it of having “stolen” the legislative elections of October 26.
The Georgian Dream often takes Ukraine, invaded by Russian troops for almost three years, as a counterexample. Its officials accuse the West of wanting to drag Georgia into a war with Moscow.
In this logic, Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov drew a parallel between the situation in Georgia and the Maidan revolution in Ukraine in 2014.
About it: Georgia: Prime Minister freezes EU accession process… already frozen by Brussels
The president greets the demonstrators
Monday morning, the pro-Western president, Salomé Zourabichvili, breaking with the government but with very limited powers, estimated that the mobilization was not weakening. “Another impressive night during which the Georgians firmly defended their Constitution and their European choice,” wrote Salomé Zourabichvili on X.
On Sunday evening, for the fourth night in a row, tens of thousands of demonstrators gathered waving European flags until late in Tbilisi and other cities.
The situation became tense in the evening around parliament. Demonstrators threw fireworks into the building and at the police, who then used water cannons and tear gas to disperse them.
Since the start of the rallies, several dozen people – demonstrators, journalists and police – have been injured, sometimes seriously, according to both camps, although the exact number has not been clearly established. 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.
In total, 224 people have been arrested since Thursday, the Interior Ministry said in a press release.
Sanctions from the Baltic countries
Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia announced on Monday that they had sanctioned Georgian figures responsible, according to them, for having violated human rights during the demonstrations. A spokesperson for German diplomacy assured Monday that the door to the European Union remained open to Georgia and called on the government to support this path.
On Monday, strikes in solidarity with demonstrators began in schools, public institutions and businesses, according to national media. Lacha Matiachvili, a 35-year-old striking professor seen in demonstrations on Sunday, said it was “a symbolic act of resistance”.
Also read: Mikhail Kavelashvili, after the Swiss fields, a footballer on the way to becoming president of Georgia
The trauma of the 2008 Russian invasion
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. Moscow then recognized the independence of two separatist Georgian regions bordering its territory, Abkhazia and South Ossetia, where Russia still maintains a military presence.
Georgia has been going through a political crisis since the announcement of the victory, later contested, of the Georgian Dream in the October elections. Despite accusations of irregularities, the government has ruled out organizing a new vote. The Georgian demonstrators received support from Washington, kyiv and Brussels, which notably denounced the use of force by the police.
Georgia officially obtained candidate status for EU membership in December 2023, but Brussels has since frozen the process, accusing the executive of serious democratic backsliding.
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