Georgia a few hours away from turning point in its history
Pro-European protests continue in Georgia. For 14 days in a row, popular anger has been expressed in front of parliament in Tbilisi. But this isn't just a phenomenon in the capital.
On December 14, 2024, there will be elections in Georgia. The aim is to vote for a new president after the controversial legislative elections of October 26 won by the “Georgian Dream”, a party led secretly by billionaire Bidzina Ivanishvili, considered a “Putin puppet”. The tension is palpable between a large part of citizens and this new power. Shouting fraud and betrayal, thousands of Georgians regularly take to the streets to express their attachment to the project of joining the European Union. This Wednesday, December 11, was the 14th consecutive day of protests in the capital. Some forty cities in this small country of 3.76 million inhabitants wedged between Russia, Turkey, Armenia and Azerbaijan have also experienced unrest and protests in recent weeks.
Vote without the people
With the great reinforcement of Georgian and European flags, the popular movement isn't dying out. It can count on the support of the current president, Salome Nino Zourabichvili, firmly opposed to the Georgian Dream party in power. She also intends not to leave her post at the end of her term, on December 29, in the face of a regime that she considers unconstitutional. In the meantime, there will be an indirect vote on Saturday. The future president will be elected by a 300-member electoral college comprising of 150 MPs and local and regional representatives, following a constitutional change adopted by the Georgian Dream in 2017. From then on, the ruling “pro-Russian” party should choose its protégé and probably move away from the ambition of moving closer to EU values in order to alienate itself from Moscow.
Repression
This prospect worries Georgians who want to distance themselves from the Moscow sphere and turn the page on a Soviet past. In particular, they reject the decision to postpone the EU accession process until 2028. The thousands of demonstrators in Tbilisi and elsewhere in the country aren't disarming. However, when faced with them, police repression is sometimes muscular. Dispersals are carried out with water cannons, tear gas and sometimes rubber bullets. According to NGOs and the opposition, 400 arrests have already been recorded, sometimes with cases of police violence against demonstrators and journalists. This repression has been denounced by the United States and the Europeans. The West has already threatened to take measures.
(MH with Olivier Duquesne – Source: RTBF & Belga – Picture: © picture alliance / Anadolu | Davit Kachkachishvili)