Brussels – There is no sign of stopping the authoritarian backslide in Georgia, where the pro-Russian ruling party is dismantling democracy through repressive laws and crackdowns. While the population, one of the most pro-European among the EU candidate countries, continues to take to the streets since last autumn, appeals to the EU leadership from civil society and opposition political forces are multiplying. They are asking Brussels to intervene before it is too late to rescue Georgian democracy and, from a European perspective, the credibility of the European project.
Yesterday (June 17) came an appeal jointly signed by over 20 national, European, and global associations urging the EU to take action to defend the freedom of the press in the country, which has come in the crosshairs of the authoritarian government of Irakli Kobakhidze, leader of the populist and pro-Russian Georgian Dream party in power since 2012.
Without an independent press, there is no democracy. And it is precisely against the independent media that the Tbilisi executive is conducting its crusade, according to the signatories of the open letter — 24 organizations and associations for the protection of press freedom and human rights, including the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), the European Federation of Journalists (Efj), Reporters Without Borders (RSF) and the Corruption and Organised Crime Investigation Project (OCCRP).
“Independent media face unprecedented pressure and are now on the brink of survival,” reads the communiqué, which points out that “journalists are increasingly subjected to detentions, physical attacks, arbitrary fines, censorship, as well as financial and institutional repression.” All this, the missive continues, following the passage of a series of repressive measures – such as the foreign agents legislation and amendments to the subsidy and broadcasting laws – the combination of which means that “independent media in Georgia may only have a few months left before being forced to close” permanently.
Censorship by the ruling party translates not only into restrictions on journalists’ work, who are subject to heavy fines for their coverage of the ongoing anti-government protests, which have been ongoing for over 200 days without interruption (and intensified after the Georgian Dream party announced the stop of EU accession negotiations). And also in verbal and physical aggressions, smear campaigns, instrumental legal actions, and, in at least a dozen cases, arbitrary arrests.
At the same time came the appeal of the journalists’ associations, a delegation of representatives of the opposition political forces that recently went to Brussels to plead the case for a democratic Georgia directly with members and officials of the EU institutions.
The EU leadership is called upon to promote and support a repeat of last October’s elections, which observers denounced as rigged, and to exert constant pressure on the government and the President of the Republic, Mikheil Kavelashvili, who took office at the end of December but considered illegitimate by opponents of Georgian Dream (including the former head of state, Salomé Zourabichvili, who exactly six months ago in Strasbourg made the same appeals to MEPs).
Even through sanctions, if necessary, which would, however, require unanimity and have already been vetoed in the past by Hungary. The risk, they warn, is that if Europe fails to assert its “regulatory power,” Georgia will progressively sever its ties with the West and strategically reorient itself towards revisionist powers such as Russia, China, and Iran.
The small but strategic South Caucasus state appeared close to joining the twelve-star club until, starting in the spring of last year, Georgian Dream sharp turned Tbilisi‘s (geo)political trajectory, bringing it further away from Brussels and ever closer to Moscow. On the one hand, adopting repressive laws, photocopies of similar measures that are in force in Vladimir Putin’s Russia.
On the other, the systematic and violent crackdown on democratic dissent by silencing the opposition, independent media outlets, and, in general, the entire civil society — from NGOs to individual citizens (affected respectively by the so-called foreign agents law and the restrictions that apply to protests).
Despite the obvious deterioration of democracy and the rule of law, the EU has failed to exert sufficiently strong political pressure on the Georgian leadership beyond cosmetic measures such as the suspension of diplomatic visas for government officials. Total emptiness, even in the context of initiatives that, like the the vague Black Sea strategy, should theoretically serve Brussels to project its soft power in that strategic quadrant both through economic agreements and through the relaunch of the enlargement process.
For the past year, that process has been de facto frozen for Tbilisi, with no signs of resuming anytime soon. The developments of recent months—during which the situation has only further deteriorated—offer no glimpse of light at the end of the tunnel. On the contrary, the darkness inside the tunnel grows deeper with each passing day.
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English version by the Translation Service of Withub
