The pro-European demonstrators gathered in front of the state university and marched to parliament. People were unimpressed by the police’s violent crackdown on demonstrators in recent days and attacks on the opposition.
“The government is trying to arrest us, punish us, but we don’t back down, we’re not afraid,” said 19-year-old protester Giorgi Romanadze. “We want Europe and only Europe.”
Some protesters held signs reading “We demand free and fair elections” and “Free all those unjustly arrested.” At the same time, calls for greater international support grew louder. “We are fighting for our freedom and we want the international community to help us,” said 32-year-old Teona Chakwetadze. The international community “must sanction our oligarchs and this illegitimate government. We cannot win this fight alone.”
The police again used tear gas and water cannons against the demonstrators.
The independent television station Pirweli reported that dozens of masked men severely beat the station’s journalists. Police officers stood nearby and did not intervene. The government’s security agencies are repeatedly accused of using plainclothes forces to attack political opponents.
The pro-European protests that began last week are particularly directed against the postponement of the Caucasus state’s EU accession negotiations until 2028, announced by Prime Minister Iraqi Kobachidze. Recently, the government has taken increasingly tough action against the opposition. Authorities said 341 demonstrators have been arrested since the protests began. Almost 150 police officers were injured.
Germany, France and Poland condemned the Georgian government’s actions against the pro-European protests on Friday. The three countries also denounced the violence against opposition figures and journalists, according to a joint statement from the Foreign Office and the foreign ministries of France and Poland.
Pro-Western President Zurabishvili, who attended the reopening ceremony of Notre-Dame Cathedral in Paris, said online that she had “extensive discussions” with US President-elect Trump and French President Macron. They spoke about “the stolen election and the extremely alarming oppression of the Georgian people,” explained Zurabishvili. “The Georgian people have a friend in Donald Trump.”
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said on Saturday he supported the anti-government protests in Georgia. At a meeting with Zurabishvili in Paris, he appealed to Tbilisi not to “surrender” itself to Moscow. He had been warning about Russian influence in Georgia for months.
The situation in Georgia has been very tense since the parliamentary elections on October 26th. According to the official election results, the Moscow-friendly ruling party Georgian Dream won a clear majority. However, the opposition accuses her of electoral fraud. She accuses the government of the former Soviet republic of wanting to bring Georgia back closer to Russia.
Georgia has officially been a candidate for EU membership since December 2023. Since then, however, the government has passed several laws that are causing great concern in Brussels, including a Russian-style law against “foreign influence.” The EU therefore froze the accession process with Georgia at the end of June.
