Georgian Prime Minister Irakli Kobahidze said the country will not allow a revolution to happen, following protests over his government's sudden freeze on Georgia's EU accession process.
Kobahidze's Georgian Dream party said on Thursday it was halting negotiations to join the European Union for the next four years because of what it called "blackmail" of Georgia by the bloc, abruptly reversing a long-standing national goal.
EU membership is extremely popular in Georgia, and public opinion polls consistently show strong public support, Reuters writes.
The freezing of talks on the application was met with great anger in the country, whose goal of EU membership is enshrined in its constitution.
The prime minister accused opponents of stopping EU accession of planning a revolution, similar to Ukraine's Maidan protest in 2014, which overthrew a pro-Russian president.
"In Georgia, the Maidan scenario cannot be realized. Georgia is a state and the state, of course, will not allow it," Kobahidze said, Georgian media reported.
Georgia's interior ministry said on Saturday it had arrested 107 people in the capital Tbilisi overnight during a protest in which protesters erected barricades along central Rustaveli Avenue and fired fireworks at police who used water cannons and tear gas to disperse them.
New protests are planned for tonight.
Hundreds of employees in Georgia's ministries of foreign affairs, defense, justice and education, along with the country's central bank, signed open letters condemning the decision to freeze negotiations.
Kvicha Kvaratshelija, the star of the Georgian national football team, supported the protesters.
"My country hurts, my people hurt - it's painful and emotional to watch the videos that are circulating, stop the violence and aggression! Georgia deserves Europe today more than ever," Kvaratshelija wrote on Facebook.
The suspension of EU accession caps a months-long deterioration in relations between Georgian Dream, which has faced accusations of authoritarian and pro-Russian tendencies, and the West.
The party is dominated by Bidzina Ivanišvili, a billionaire former prime minister who is taking increasingly anti-Western views.
The Georgian Dream won nearly 54 percent of the vote in October elections that opposition parties say were rigged.
Both the ruling party and Georgia's election commission say the vote was free and fair. Western countries have called for an investigation into the violation of the law.
The EU has already said Georgia's application was halted because of laws against "foreign agents" and LGBT rights that it described as draconian and pro-Russian.
Meanwhile, the Georgian Dream has moved to build ties with neighboring Russia, from which Georgia gained independence in 1991.
The two countries have not had diplomatic relations since a brief war over a Moscow-backed rebel region in 2008, but resumed direct flights in 2023, while Moscow lifted visa restrictions on Georgian nationals earlier this year.
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