Protesters in Georgia have two main demands: new elections after disputed parliamentary elections held on October 26 and a return to the European path laid out in their country's Constitution.
The ruling Georgian Dream party accused the opposition of organizing the "Maidan Uprising" with the help of "foreign sponsors", alluding to the 2014 Ukrainian revolution against pro-Russian President Viktor Yanukovych.
On Sunday evening (8.12), thousands of people took to the streets again. They gathered for the eleventh day in a row in front of the parliament in the capital Tbilisi. Many of them waved European Union flags.
As in the previous evenings, the protesters hit the metal barriers that surround the parliament. During the day, the city authorities started installing a large Christmas tree in front of the building, and protest participants attached to the structure photos of protesters who were recently beaten by the police. The faces in the photographs were covered in bruises.
Kremlin rhetoric
The police are increasingly violently intervening against the demonstrators, using water cannons and tear gas. Allegedly, a number of protesters who threw pyrotechnic devices at the police and erected barricades on Sunday were beaten. They accuse the Georgian government of using groups of thugs to prevent people from participating in protests. Representatives of the ruling pro-Russian party "Georgian Dream" reject those accusations.
Prime Minister Irakli Kobahidze accused the opposition leaders of organizing the violence, blaming them for the injuries. "We have won an important battle against liberal fascism in our country," he told reporters, using rhetoric the Kremlin uses against its political opponents.
According to the latest estimates of Transparency International, around 400 people were arrested during the protests. More than 300 of them were injured.
Attacks on journalists
Journalists are increasingly being targeted. According to information from the AP agency, Georgian journalists are exposed to brutal attacks. Reporter Maka Čihladze reported that a violent crowd attacked her together with a colleague from the independent television station "Pirveli TV" on Saturday evening. A colleague suffered a head injury, and his camera was stolen.
On Sunday, several hundred journalists marched through Tbilisi and put up posters of colleagues they claim were attacked while doing their jobs. "Our colleagues were beaten and injured, some are in a serious condition in the hospital," said the host of "Pirveli TV" Ekaterina Mishveladze.
Conflict over the pro-European direction of the country
The pro-European protests are directed primarily against Prime Minister Kobahidze's announcement that he will postpone negotiations on EU accession until 2028. At the center of the protests are the disputed parliamentary elections held at the end of October. The opposition accuses the ruling party of electoral fraud. The government denies this, but some local and international observers have documented numerous irregularities.
One of the protesters told DW: "We saw the ruling party's observers pressuring people at the polling stations to vote for the 'Georgian Dream.' I've documented it, and I'm not the only one. The ruling party has taken over all state institutions – the parliament, the courts and the election commission."
Georgia has been an official candidate for EU membership since December 2023. However, the government has since passed several laws that are causing great concern in Brussels - including a law against "foreign influence", modeled on Russia. This is why the European Union froze Georgia's accession process at the end of June.
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