Georgia’s PM hits back as protests and resignations intensify
Georgia has experienced its fourth consecutive night of street protests and a wave of public resignations, sparked by the ruling party’s decision to halt efforts to begin negotiations for joining the European Union.
As tens of thousands of Georgians returned to the streets across various cities, Prime Minister Irakli Kobakhidze claimed that the protests were based on opposition falsehoods and dismissed calls for new elections.
He confirmed reports that Georgia’s ambassador to the US, David Zalkaliani, had resigned as the latest senior diplomat to step down, citing intense pressure.
However, Kobakhidze rejected the reasons behind the protests, stating on Sunday that “we have not suspended anything, it’s a lie.”
Just three days prior, his party, Georgian Dream, had accused the EU of using the EU membership talks as “blackmail” and announced that the issue would not be pursued until at least 2028.
Pro-EU demonstrators gathered in large numbers once more on Sunday night, and when fireworks were launched at the parliament building and riot police, the authorities responded with water cannons. Riot police formed large groups in side streets near the parliament, and reports of clashes with demonstrators only emerged late into the night.
The EU and US have criticized Georgia’s increasingly authoritarian government for its democratic decline. On Saturday, the US made the significant move of suspending its strategic partnership with the country.
Despite this, Kobakhidze reaffirmed that Georgian Dream remains “committed to European integration… and we are continuing on our path to the European dream.”
And yet an increasing array of public officials do not appear to believe that is the case. Several ambassadors have resigned, and hundreds of civil servants and more than 3,000 teachers have signed letters condemning the decision to put EU accession on hold.
Many Georgians have been shocked by the level of violence directed at Georgian journalists as well as protesters. Dozens of reporters have been beaten or pepper sprayed and some have needed hospital treatment.
Georgia’s human rights ombudsman Levan Ioseliani said “this is brutality”, and he appealed to police not to abuse their power.
The prime minister said it was opposition groups and not the police that had meted out “systemic violence”.
Georgian ex-ambassador to the EU Natalie Sabanadze, now at Chatham House in the UK, believes the level of violence, the string of resignations and civil disobedience indicate a “qualitative change” to the protests now taking place.
“Maybe [the government] thought people would be scared, but it’s not working out like this,” she told the BBC. “Yesterday civil society activists and artists went to the public broadcaster and took it over and forced their way into the live stream. I’ve seen this before, in pre-revolutionary Georgia [in 2003].”
Georgia’s pro-Western president, Salome Zourabichvili, is due to step down in a matter of weeks, however since last month’s contested parliamentary elections which opposition parties have denounced as rigged, she has become a powerful figurehead, rallying protesters against the government and calling for a new vote.
She and the protesters accuse the government of aiming to drag their country back into Russia’s sphere of influence, even though an overwhelming majority of the population backs joining the EU.
Georgia has a population of some 3.7 million and 20% of its territory is under Russian military occupation in two breakaway regions.
During the day on Sunday, a small group of protesters occupied a traffic intersection during the day on Sunday in front of Tbilisi State University.
“I’m here for my country’s future and the future of my three-year-old son,” said one protester called Salome, aged 29. “I don’t want him to spend his life at protests and I don’t want a Russian government.”
While Georgian Dream flatly denies any links to the Kremlin, it has in the past year adopted Russian-style laws that target civil society groups with funding from abroad as well as LGBT rights.
Half an hour’s walk away from the daylight protest, a small army of cleaners was trying to scrub off graffiti from a wall in front of the Georgian parliament.
Some of the windows of the building were smashed on Saturday night, and an effigy was set alight of Bidzina Ivanishvili, the billionaire seen as the driving force behind Georgian Dream’s 12 years in power.
The question now is what will happen next in Georgia’s deepening political and constitutional crisis.
The Georgian Dream government’s relations with its Western partners are very badly damaged.
The EU’s new foreign policy chief, Kaja Kallas, warned on Sunday that the government’s actions would “have direct consequences from EU side”, and the US decision to suspend its strategic partnership will also be widely felt.
The Georgian prime minister had little time for the president or her call for new elections.
“Mrs Salome Zourabichvili has four Fridays left [as president] and she can’t get used to it. I understand her emotional state, but of course on 29 December she’ll have to leave.”
