Towards a seventh night of pro-EU mobilization in Georgia

Photo: Giorgi Arjevanidze Agence France-Presse Protesters stand amid exploding fireworks as they clash with police during a sixth consecutive day of mass protests, in central Tbilisi, Georgia, December 4, 2024.

Léa Dauple – Agence France-Presse and Irakli Metreveli – Agence France-Presse in Tbilisi

Published at 9:00 a.m.

• Europe

Georgia is preparing for a seventh night of protests and clashes with police in the capital Tbilisi on Wednesday, with the government accused of abandoning the Caucasian country's European ambitions to move closer to Moscow, struggling to find a way out of the crisis.

The protests in Tbilisi, marred by violence, broke out last Thursday after the government announced that the former Soviet republic's ambitions to join the EU would be postponed until 2028.

The choice has sparked a powder keg in an already tense political climate. The ruling party, Georgian Dream, is accused of authoritarianism and the opposition claims that it “stole” the legislative elections in late October.

Its results have also been questioned by Western countries. Opposition lawmakers have refused to take their seats in the newly elected parliament, which protesters and experts have denounced as “illegitimate.”

Georgian police beat and arrested an opposition leader on Wednesday during a raid on a party office, amid growing protests against the government and threats of repression by the prime minister.

Akhali party leader Nika Gvaramia was beaten and taken away by hooded police officers during a raid on the offices of another opposition party, Droa, according to live footage broadcast by independent television station Pirveli.

Since last week, tens of thousands of people carrying European and Georgian flags have taken to the streets of the capital Tbilisi and other cities in the country nestled on the shores of the Black Sea.

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On Tuesday evening, thousands of protesters were still gathered in front of the parliament, the epicenter of tensions and protests.

In the evening, they were dispersed by police, who used water cannons and tear gas extensively, while protesters threw fireworks at them.

The clashes continued until early Wednesday morning, with officers chasing some protesters through the streets to arrest them.

“Eleven protesters, three journalists and a police officer” had to be hospitalized after the clashes, the Health Ministry said.

By the afternoon, temporary calm had returned to Parliament Square in Tbilisi, although a strong police presence remained visible. Just like the damage from the day before: broken windows covered with cardboard, and anti-government graffiti covered with black paint.

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“Torture”

A protest is planned for Wednesday at the same location for the seventh night in a row, raising fears of further violence.

Georgian human rights commissioner Levan Ioseliani accused police of using “punitive” violence against protesters, which amounts to “an act of torture.”

The public defender said he had visited detained and injured protesters, noting with concern that the majority had serious head or eye injuries.

Some 293 people have been detained since the start of the protests, the Interior Ministry said Tuesday night, and 143 police officers have been injured.

President Salome Zurabishvili, who opposes the government but has limited powers, denounced a “disproportionate” use of force by the police, “mass arrests and mistreatment”.

She has become one of the default figures of a protest movement that has no clear structure.

Georgian Prime Minister Irakli Kobakhidze has, for the time being, adopted a hard line, threatening the opposition and refusing to make any concessions.

On Wednesday, he promised again to repress the “radical opposition” which, according to him, is organizing “violent actions” and trying to destabilize the country. “No one will escape their responsibilities,” he warned.

The day before, he had assured that the Georgians had “misunderstood” him and that European integration was “progressing,” despite the postponement that he himself announced.

Irakli Kobakhidze has also claimed, without evidence, that the protests were the result of organized manipulation from abroad, echoing rhetoric often used by the Kremlin to comment on any spark of dissent in Russia.

The protesters are protesting both in support of the European Union and in opposition to Russia. They see the current government’s choices as steps toward the Kremlin.

Georgia remains traumatized by a brief war in the summer of 2008 with Russia, which still controls de facto 20% of its territory.