Demonstrators use firecrackers towards police throughout a rally towards the federal government’s choice to droop negotiations on becoming a member of the European Union for 4 years, outdoors the parliament’s constructing in Tbilisi, Georgia, early Sunday, Dec. 1, 2024.
Zurab Tsertsvadze/AP/AP
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Zurab Tsertsvadze/AP/AP
TBILISI, Georgia — Protesters gathered throughout Georgia on Saturday evening in a 3rd straight evening of demonstrations towards the federal government’s choice to droop negotiations to affix the European Union.
More than 100 demonstrators have been arrested as crowds clashed with police Friday evening, the nation’s Interior Ministry stated. The Associated Press noticed protesters in Tbilisi being chased and overwhelmed by police as demonstrators rallied in entrance of the nation’s parliament constructing.
On the identical evening, police additionally used heavy pressure towards members of the media and deployed water cannons to push protesters again alongside the capital’s central boulevard, Rustaveli Avenue.
The ruling Georgian Dream occasion’s disputed victory within the nation’s Oct. 26 parliamentary election, which was extensively seen as a referendum on Georgia’s aspirations to affix the European Union, has sparked main demonstrations and led to an opposition boycott of the parliament.
The opposition has stated that the vote was rigged with the assistance of Russia, Georgia’s former imperial grasp, with Moscow hoping to maintain Tbilisi in its orbit.
Speaking to the AP on Saturday, Georgian President Salome Zourabichvili stated that Georgia was turning into a “quasi-Russian” state and that Georgian Dream managed the nation’s main establishments.
“We have seen taking place within the nation — which is a rustic the place we shouldn’t have any longer unbiased establishments, not the courts, not the Central Bank, and never, in fact, the parliament,” she stated. “We have been transferring increasingly more quickly right into a quasi-Russian mannequin.”
Demonstrators stand in entrance of police throughout a rally outdoors the parliament’s constructing to protest the federal government’s choice to droop negotiations on becoming a member of the European Union for 4 years in Tbilisi, Georgia, on Saturday, Nov. 30, 2024.
Zurab Tsertsvadze/AP/AP
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Zurab Tsertsvadze/AP/AP
Zourabichvili additionally rejected statements made by Georgian Prime Minister Irakli Kobakhidze, who characterised the protests as “violent demonstrations.” In a press release on Saturday, he stated Tbilisi remained dedicated to European integration. However, he stated that unspecified “overseas entities” wished to see the “Ukrainization” of Georgia with a “Maidan-style state of affairs” – a reference to Ukraine’s 2014 Maidan revolution.
“We usually are not demanding a revolution. We are asking for brand spanking new elections, however in circumstances that may be certain that the need of the individuals won’t be misrepresented or stolen once more,” Zourabichvili stated. “Georgia has been all the time resisting Russian affect and won’t settle for having its vote stolen and its future stolen.”
The authorities’s announcement that it was suspending negotiations to affix the EU got here hours after the European Parliament adopted a decision that condemned final month’s vote as neither free nor truthful. It stated the election represented one other manifestation of Georgia’s continued democratic backsliding “for which the ruling Georgian Dream occasion is totally accountable.”
European election observers stated October’s vote befell in a divisive ambiance marked by situations of bribery, double voting and bodily violence.
The EU granted Georgia candidate standing in December 2023 provided that it meet the bloc’s suggestions, however put its accession on maintain and minimize monetary assist earlier this 12 months after the passage of a “overseas affect” regulation extensively seen as a blow to democratic freedoms.
EU lawmakers urged a rerun of the parliamentary vote inside a 12 months beneath thorough worldwide supervision and by an unbiased election administration. They additionally known as on the EU to impose sanctions and restrict formal contacts with the Georgian authorities.
The Georgian prime minister fired again, denouncing what he described as a “cascade of insults” from the EU politicians and declaring that “the ill-wishers of our nation have turned the European Parliament right into a blunt weapon of blackmail towards Georgia, which is a superb shame for the European Union.”
Kobakhidze additionally stated Georgia would reject any budgetary grants from the EU till the top of 2028.
Critics have accused Georgian Dream — established by Bidzina Ivanishvili, a shadowy billionaire who made his fortune in Russia — of turning into more and more authoritarian and tilted towards Moscow. The occasion lately pushed by legal guidelines just like these utilized by the Kremlin to crack down on freedom of speech and LGBTQ+ rights.
