Georgia: Tens of thousands of pro-European protesters in Tbilisi ahead of parliamentary elections

Tens of thousands of pro-European demonstrators gathered ;s Sunday in Tbilisi, Georgia, a week of legislative elections crucial for the democratic future of the country and having the value of a “referendum” between Europe and Russia.

The pro-European opposition in this small Caucasian country, made up of four main alliances, will face the ruling conservative party, the Georgian Dream, next Saturday, accused by its detractors of a pro-Russian authoritarian drift and of derailing the long-standing project of joining the European Union.

On Freedom Square in Tbilisi, many demonstrators came with Georgian and European Union flags, noted an AFP journalist present on the scene. Others brandished, during the night, placards reading: “Georgia chooses the EU”.

The European project is at the heart of the demonstrators' demands. They sang the Georgian national anthem, but also that of the EU, the Ode to Joy.

“Georgia's destiny hangs by a thread,” Koté Tsintsandzé, a 20-year-old student, explained to AFP.

“These elections will decide whether we can finally free ourselves from the dictatorship of the Georgian Dream,” he continues, believing that “people are united in their determination to be where we need to be: in Europe.”

Not far away, Lia Nemsadze, 49, proudly adds: “Look at this ocean of European Union flags. In which other country in Europe are they waved with such hope ?”.

– European hope –

The crowd gathered on Sunday “shows that Georgia has already won and that it will reintegrate Europe”, says President Salome Zourabichvili, who has broken with the government but has powers limited.

To her Ukrainian counterpart Volodymyr Zelensky, whose country has been fighting against the full-scale Russian invasion since February 2022, the leader – who is a former French diplomat – declared: “You are also fighting for Georgia. You will be victorious and we will enter the European Union together.”

Pro-European demonstration in Tbilisi on October 20, 2024, a week before crucial elections for Georgia © AFP – Vano SHLAMOV

Recent polls in recent days suggest that the opposition alliance could win enough votes on October 26 to defeat Georgian Dream, the party of billionaire Bidzina Ivanishvili. At 68, he has been secretly holding the reins of power for about ten years, without holding any government office.

The results will be closely scrutinized in Brussels, at a time when European leaders fear that Georgia is moving away from its ambition to join the EU.

The objective of European membership is nevertheless enshrined in the Constitution of this former Soviet republic.

Faced with the pro-European camp, the oligarch and former Prime Minister Bidzina Ivanishvili regularly criticizes the West and has called on his supporters to vote for his Georgian Dream party, to “choose between slavery and freedom, submission to foreign powers and sovereignty, between war and peace”.

The government has indicated that it will ban pro-Western opposition parties if the Georgian Dream wins a sufficient majority to pass the measure.

– “Crucial test” –

The October 26 vote, considered one of the most important in the country since the fall of the USSR, comes after several waves of anti-government protests, led in particular by young people.

In May, protesters took to the streets in large numbers against a law on “foreign influence”, criticized in the West because it was inspired by Russian legislation on “foreign agents” used to suppress dissenting voices.

Brussels immediately froze the accession process Georgia's EU and US sanctions have been imposed on Georgian officials accused of authorising a “brutal crackdown” on protesters.

Tbilisi responded by threatening to “review” its diplomatic relations with Washington.

EU Foreign Minister Josep Borrell recently expressed concern about Georgia's “slide” “towards authoritarianism”, calling the vote a “crucial test”.

Russia, a historic player in the Caucasus, shares nearly 1,000 kilometres of border with Georgia. Mr. Ivanishvili made his fortune there after the fall of the USSR before returning to Georgia in the early 2000s.

The Kremlin, for its part, accused the West last Tuesday of interfering in the upcoming elections.

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