Police have clashed with protesters in the Georgian capital, Tbilisi, after the country’s ruling party said the government would suspend talks on EU accession until 2028.
The interior ministry on Friday reported the arrest of 43 protesters, with three police officers injured, two of whom were taken to hospital.
Police fired water cannon and deployed pepper spray and teargas to disperse protesters as masked people tried to smash their way into the parliament. Some protesters threw fireworks at police while shouting “Russians” and “slaves”.
Thousands of pro-EU protesters had blocked streets in the capital before the altercations began. The country’s outgoing pro-EU figurehead president, Salome Zourabichvili, accused the government of declaring “war” on its own people and confronted riot police, asking whether they served Georgia or Russia.
“Today marks a significant point, or rather, the conclusion of the constitutional coup that has been unfolding for several weeks,” she told a news conference alongside opposition leaders. “Today, this nonexistent and illegitimate government declared war on its own people,” she added, calling herself the Georgia’s “sole legitimate representative”.
The government announcement came hours after the European parliament adopted a non-binding resolution rejecting the results of Georgia’s 26 October parliamentary elections, alleging “significant irregularities”.
The resolution called for new elections within a year under international supervision and for sanctions to be imposed on top Georgian officials from the ruling Georgian Dream (GD) party, including the prime minister, Irakli Kobakhidze.
“Georgian Dream didn’t win the elections, it staged a coup. There is no legitimate parliament or government in Georgia,” said Shota Sabashvili, a 20-year-old protester. “We will not let this self-proclaimed prime minister destroy our European future.”
Georgia’s relations with the EU have deteriorated sharply in recent months as Brussels has alleged that the government had resorted to authoritarian measures and adopted pro-Russian stances.
The ruling GD party, which has been in power since 2012, says it is not pro-Russian and that it is committed to democracy and integration with the west. But in recent years, it has passed several pieces of illiberal legislation that critics say are aimed to stifle independent thought. In the summer, the parliament also passed legislation imposing sweeping restrictions on LGBTQ+ rights, a move that critics say mirrors laws enacted in neighbouring Russia, where authorities have implemented a series of repressive measures against sexual minorities.
GD has accused the EU of “a cascade of insults”, saying in a statement it was using the prospect of accession talks to “blackmail” Georgia and to “organise a revolution in the country”.
As a result, GD said: “We have decided not to put the issue of opening negotiations with the European Union on the agenda until the end of 2028. Also, we refuse any budgetary grant from the European Union until the end of 2028.”
The South Caucasus country of 3.7 million people has the aim of EU accession written into its constitution and has long been among the most pro-western of the Soviet Union’s successor states.
Within months of the downturn in relations, the EU had said Georgia’s application for membership was frozen.
The EU’s ambassador to Georgia, Paweł Herczyński, described the effective halt of the country’s EU path as “heartbreaking” and also condemned police violence against protesters at the pro-EU demonstration on Thursday.
Opinion polls show that about 80% of Georgians support EU membership, and the bloc’s flag flies alongside the national flag outside almost all government buildings in the country.
The pro-western opposition reacted to GD’s announcement with fury as protesters massed. Local media reported that protests also erupted in provincial cities.
Giorgi Vashadze, a prominent opposition leader, wrote on Facebook: “The self-proclaimed, illegitimate government has already legally signed the betrayal of Georgia and the Georgian people.”
Zourabichvili, a pro-EU critic of GD whose powers are mostly ceremonial, said the ruling party had “declared not peace, but war against its own people, its past and future”.
Her term concludes in December and GD has put forward Mikheil Kavelashvili, a former Manchester City striker known for his staunchly anti-western views, as her successor.
The opposition said that an October election, in which official results gave the GD bloc almost 54% of the vote, was fraudulent and have refused to take their seats. Western countries have demanded an inquiry into irregularities. A global research and data firm called the official results reported by the electoral commission “statistically impossible”.
Both GD and Georgia’s election commission claim the election was free and fair.
Thousands of Georgians took to the streets in late October to rally against the results of the contested parliamentary election, but the protests soon ended. The pro-EU opposition will now hope that GD’s candid admission of plans to delay the country’s EU integration aspirations will inspire more widespread and sustained protests in Tbilisi and across Georgia.
There have also been signs of cracks in the country’s elite. More than 100 serving Georgian diplomats have signed an open letter criticising the new government’s suspension of EU accession talks and more than 45 officials at the country’s defence ministry signed an open letter in favour of closer EU cooperation.
Three leading Tbilisi universities said they were suspending studies amid the unrest.
Earlier on Thursday, Kobakhidze claimed EU membership could harm Georgia’s economy because it would require Tbilisi to cancel visa-free agreements and trade deals with other countries.
The EU gave Georgia candidate status in December 2023, but has said that a number of laws passed since by GD, including curbs on “foreign agents” and LGBTQ+ rights, are authoritarian, Russian-inspired, and obstacles to EU membership.
Foreign and domestic critics of GD say the party, which is seen as dominated by its billionaire founder, the former prime minister Bidzina Ivanishvili, is steering Georgia back towards Moscow, from which it gained independence in 1991.
Russia and Georgia have had no formal diplomatic relations since Moscow won a brief 2008 war, but have had a limited rapprochement recently.
The Russian president, Vladimir Putin, speaking during a visit to Kazakhstan, praised the “courage and character” he said Georgian authorities had shown in passing the law on foreign agents, which domestic critics have likened to Russian legislation.
Reuters and Agence France-Presse contributed to this report
