go to the original language article
Rome (ANSA) – For the fourth consecutive evening, thousands of pro-EU protesters took to the streets in Georgia after the police once again dispersed them with water cannons and tear gas at dawn 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 are held after those disputed on October 26, which saw the victory of the pro-Russian ruling party Georgian Dream.
“The President on December 29 will have to leave her residence and hand over the building to the legitimately elected president,” stated the eviction notice from Prime Minister Irakli Kobakhidze, who has ruled out returning to the polls. After months of growing confrontation between the ruling party and opponents accusing it of pursuing increasingly authoritarian, anti-Western, and pro-Russian policies, the protest spread on Thursday following Kobakhidze’s announcement of wanting to delay the start of Georgia’s EU membership process.
According to Reuters, there are signs indicating that the protest is spreading across 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 office of Georgian Dream and tearing down the party’s flag.
The Vice Chairman of the Russian Security Council Dmitri Medvedev hints at threats: “There are all the conditions to plunge Georgia back into the abyss of civil war. In short, the neighbors are quickly following the Ukrainian path into the abyss. Usually, this ends very badly.” “Alongside the Georgian people and their choice for a European future” in contrast to the government’s decisions, Ursula Von der Leyen has aligned herself: “The EU’s door remains open. Georgia’s return on the path to the European Union is in the hands of the Georgian leadership” (December 1).