Demonstrators in Georgia have taken to the streets for a fourth night in growing protests against the government’s decision to suspend talks on joining the European Union.
The protests on Sunday topped months of tensions fuelled by critics of the ruling Georgian Dream party, which some charge has moved the country away from its path towards greater integration with Europe and instead towards Russia.
The unrest kicked into overdrive after the government last week announced it would freeze EU talks for four years. Protesters have further condemned the police response – which has included the use of tear gas and water cannon – as excessive.
On Sunday, the outrage was further stoked by Prime Minister Irakli Kobakhidze’s rejection of appeals to hold new parliamentary elections.
When asked if the vote would be held again, he told reporters: “Of course not.”
He added that “the formation of the new government based on the October 26 parliamentary elections has been completed.”
Still, the opposition continues to condemn the vote. President Salome Zurabishvili, who supports joining the EU, has asked the Constitutional Court to annul the election results and declared the new legislature and government “illegitimate”.
Speaking to the AFP news agency on Saturday, Zurabishvili, whose term ends this month, said she would not step aside until the elections are rerun.
Georgian Dream has nominated far-right former football international Mikheil Kavelashvili for the presidential post, which is largely ceremonial.
Protests spread
On Sunday, protesters again gathered in the capital, Tbilisi, predominantly on the central Rustaveli Avenue, with many waving EU and Georgian flags. Some wore diving masks to protect themselves against tear gas.
But the demonstrations appeared to be spreading as Georgian media reported protests in at least eight cities and towns.
In the Black Sea city of Poti, protesters blocked an access road to the country’s main commercial port, according to the Interpress news agency.
Opposition TV channel Formula also showed footage of people in Khashuri, a town of 20,000 in central Georgia, throwing eggs at the local Georgian Dream office and tearing down the party’s flag.
At least 150 protesters have been arrested across the country.
Both the United States and EU – which have been vocal about concerns over the apparent lurch towards Russia – have voiced support for the protesters.
On Saturday, the US said it was suspending a strategic partnership Washington maintains with Tbilisi, condemning the “excessive force used against Georgians exercising their freedom to protest”.
Kobakhidze dismissed the move as a “temporary event” and said he would instead focus on the incoming administration of President-elect Donald Trump, who takes office in January.
The EU’s new foreign policy chief, Kaja Kallas, on Sunday also warned Georgian authorities over violence against demonstrators with France, the United Kingdom, Ukraine, Poland, Sweden and Lithuania also voicing concern.
Georgia’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, in turn, has accused the countries of seeking to “interfere in the functioning of the institutions of a sovereign state”.
But from within the country, hundreds of public servants in government ministries have also issued joint statements protesting against Kobakhidze’s decision to suspend EU talks.
More than 200 Georgian diplomats also criticised the suspension, saying it contradicted the constitution and would lead the country “into international isolation”.
For its part, the Kremlin – which has long accused the West of fomenting revolution in former Soviet countries – has not directly commented on the protests.
However, security official Dmitry Medvedev, a former Russian president, has claimed an attempted revolution was taking place.
He wrote on Telegram that Georgia was “moving rapidly along the Ukrainian path, into the dark abyss. Usually this sort of thing ends very badly.”
Georgia has leaned strongly towards Europe and the West since the Soviet Union collapsed in 1991. Its move away from Moscow was hastened by a brief war with Russia in 2008.
Last year, it became an official candidate for EU membership and has been promised eventual NATO membership.