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Bloomberg and AP, TBILISI
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Protesters gathered across Georgia on Saturday night in a third straight night of demonstrations against the government’s decision to suspend negotiations to join the EU, while Georgian President Salome Zourabichvili has vowed to stay in office and defy the ruling party’s plan to replace her.
Protesters who were gathered around the parliament building in the capital Tbilisi were pushed by police and special forces toward a nearby square, as they defied warnings to leave the area. Cab drivers used their vehicles to form a barrier between demonstrators and riot police. Zourabichvili said the police are using “illegal methods” on protesters.
The demonstrations were sparked by the ruling party’s announcement last week that it would delay talks on EU membership until 2028. Zourabichvili, whose post is largely ceremonial, has encouraged protests against what she called a “Russian special operation” seeking to restore Moscow’s influence and thwarting Georgia’s goal of joining the EU and NATO.
Demonstrators rally outside the Georgian parliament building, center left, to protest the government’s decision to suspend negotiations on joining the EU in Tbilisi, Georgia, on Saturday.
Photo: AP
The ruling Georgian Dream party’s disputed victory in the country’s Oct. 26 parliamentary election, which was widely seen as a referendum on Georgia’s aspirations to join the EU, has sparked major demonstrations and led to an opposition boycott of the parliament.
The opposition has said that the vote was rigged with the help of Russia, with Moscow hoping to keep Tbilisi in its orbit.
Zourabichvili said that Georgia was becoming a “quasi-Russian” state and that Georgian Dream controlled the country’s major institutions.
Demonstrators hold an EU flag as police use a water cannon amid protests against the Georgian government’s decision to suspend negotiations on joining the EU in Tbilisi, Georgia, on Sunday.
Photo: AP
“We have seen happening in the country — which is a country where we do not have any longer independent institutions, not the courts, not the Central Bank, and not, of course, the parliament,” she said. “We have been moving more and more rapidly into a quasi-Russian model.”
Zourabichvili also rejected statements made by Georgian Prime Minister Irakli Kobakhidze, who characterized the protests as “violent demonstrations.”
Kobakhidze in a statement on Saturday said that Tbilisi remained committed to European integration, but unspecified “foreign entities” wished to see the “Ukrainization” of Georgia with a “Maidan-style scenario” — a reference to Ukraine’s 2014 Maidan revolution.
“We are not demanding a revolution. We are asking for new elections, but in conditions that will ensure that the will of the people will not be misrepresented or stolen again,” Zourabichvili said. “Georgia has been always resisting Russian influence and will not accept having its vote stolen and its destiny stolen.”
The government’s announcement that it was suspending negotiations to join the EU came hours after the European Parliament adopted a resolution that condemned last month’s vote as neither free nor fair. It said the election represented another manifestation of Georgia’s continued democratic backsliding “for which the ruling Georgian Dream party is fully responsible.”
European election observers said October’s vote took place in a divisive atmosphere marked by instances of bribery, double voting and physical violence.
The EU granted Georgia candidate status in December last year on condition that it meet the bloc’s recommendations, but put its accession on hold and cut financial support earlier this year after the passage of a “foreign influence” law widely seen as a blow to democratic freedoms.
Georgian Dream last week chose Mikheil Kavelashvili, a former soccer player and current lawmaker, to be their presidential candidate in the Dec. 14 election to replace pro-Europe Zourabichvili. The president would be chosen by the country’s electoral college consisting of 300 people, including all members of parliament, under constitutional changes taking effect this year.
Zourabichvili has also said the October parliamentary elections were illegitimate, and that she is “the only independent and legitimate institution remaining” in Georgia.
“There is no legitimate parliament therefore there is no legitimate president or inauguration. This is why I am staying as your president,” Zourabichvili said in televised address on Saturday.
