A month after legislative elections won by the ruling party but denounced as tainted by irregularities by the pro-Western opposition and the president, Salomé Zourabichvili, the political situation threatens to degenerate in Georgia. This Friday, November 29, for the second consecutive evening, riot police used tear gas and water cannons against demonstrators. Thousands of people gathered in the center of the capital, Tbilisi, and blocked traffic on the city’s main avenue, at the call of the opposition. In the evening, the president publicly displayed her support for “resistance movement” antigouvernemental.
The ruling party (the Georgian Dream) and the government that emerged from it are accused by demonstrators of distracting this former Soviet republic from its ambition to join the European Union and, on the contrary, of wanting to bring Tbilisi closer to Moscow, while some Georgians consider Russia, which invaded in 2008, as a threat, and the West as a bulwark. Georgia officially obtained candidate status for membership in December 2023, but Brussels has since frozen the process, accusing the government of serious democratic backsliding. If the authorities still assure that they intend to join the EU in 2030, they announced Thursday evening to postpone the question until the end of 2028.
“Brutal repression”
The move led thousands of opposition supporters to take to the streets in protest, gathering in the capital Tbilisi and other cities overnight. On Thursday evening and Friday morning, riot police already fired rubber bullets and used tear gas and water cannons, beating protesters and journalists in front of Parliament. Opposite, the demonstrators had erected barricades which they set on fire. According to the Ministry of the Interior, “43 people were arrested” during the night from Thursday to Friday. According to him, 32 police officers were injured “following the illegal and violent actions of the demonstrators”.
The opposition is boycotting the new Parliament and demonstrations follow one another, until now without forcing the government to bend. The president, Salomé Zourabichvili, in rupture with the government, has only limited powers and her mandate ends this year, but she demands that the Constitutional Court annuls the results of the legislative elections. A request which nevertheless has little chance of succeeding. The head of state denounced the “repression” demonstrations and called for a “firm reaction from European capitals”. The Council of Europe, for its part, “strongly condemned” the “brutal repression of demonstrations” in Tbilisi, also expressing alarm at the decision of the Georgian government to postpone its European ambitions to 2028.
France, for its part, ensured this Friday evening “support European aspirations” Georgians. “We are concerned by reports of crackdowns against protesters and journalists and call for respect for the right to peaceful protest,” according to a statement from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, which ensures that “France will continue to maintain strong ties with the Georgian population and support their European aspirations, which must not be betrayed.”
Updated at 9:58 p.m. with the reaction from Paris.
Source: www.liberation.fr
