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‘Excluded a new vote’, protests mount in Georgia

by AI | 07.Dec 2024 | Europe in brief AI

For the fourth consecutive evening, thousands of pro-EU demonstrators took to the streets. The protest erupted after the prime minister’s announcement to postpone the start of the EU accession process.

People gather during a demonstration in response to the call of the pro-Western opposition, which refuses to recognize the results of the parliamentary elections. Photo: Jan Schmidt-Whitley/Le Pictorium via ZUMA Press/dpa

Rome (ANSA) – For the fourth consecutive evening thousands of pro-EU protesters took to the streets in Georgia after once again, at dawn, the police dispersed them with water cannons and tear gas on Rustaveli Avenue, the main street of Tbilisi in front of the Parliament. The pro-EU president Salome Zurabishvili has ruled out resigning until new parliamentary elections following the contested ones of October 26 which saw the victory of the pro-Russian party in power, Georgian Dream.

“On December 29, the president will have to leave her residence and hand over the building to the legitimately elected president,” was the eviction notice given by Prime Minister Irakli Kobakhidze, who ruled out returning to the polls. After months of escalating conflict between the ruling party and the opponents who accuse it of pursuing increasingly authoritarian, anti-Western and pro-Russian policies, the protest escalated on Thursday following Kobakhidze’s announcement to delay the start of Georgia’s EU accession process.

According to Reuters, there are signs indicating that the protest is spreading throughout the country. Georgian media reported protests in at least eight cities and the opposition television channel Formula shows footage of people in Khashuri, a city of 20,000 inhabitants in central Georgia, throwing eggs at the local Georgian Dream office and tearing down the party’s flag.

The vice president of the Russian Security Council Dmitri Medvedev makes insinuations that sound like threats: “There are all the prerequisites to plunge Georgia back into the abyss of civil war. In short, the neighbors are quickly following the Ukrainian path to the abyss. Usually, this ends very badly.” “Alongside the Georgian people and their choice for a European future” as opposed to government decisions, Ursula Von der Leyen declared: “The EU door remains open. Georgia’s return to the path towards the European Union is in the hands of the Georgian leadership” (December 1).