{"id":409500,"date":"2024-11-29T12:45:24","date_gmt":"2024-11-29T11:45:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/2024\/11\/29\/georgia-proteste-governo-stop-adesione-ue\/"},"modified":"2024-12-04T18:58:43","modified_gmt":"2024-12-04T17:58:43","slug":"protests-soar-in-georgia-after-government-halts-path-to-eu-membership","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/2024\/11\/29\/protests-soar-in-georgia-after-government-halts-path-to-eu-membership\/","title":{"rendered":"Protests soar in Georgia after government halts path to EU membership"},"content":{"rendered":"

Brussels –Violence returns to the streets of Tbilisi<\/strong> following the\u00a0official announcement by the ruling Georgian Dream<\/strong> party\u00a0to stop\u00a0the process of joining the European Union<\/strong>, leading to\u00a0thousands of citizens pouring into the capital to protest what they see as the country\u00a0sliding toward the Russian orbit.<\/strong> While tensions resurfaced after seemingly subsiding in recent weeks, the European Parliament in Strasbourg recognized as illegitimate last month’s\u00a0elections <\/strong>and called on Georgian authorities to repeat the vote.<\/p>\n

The government’s decision<\/h3>\n

On Thursday evening (Nov. 28), Georgian Prime Minister Irakli Kobakhidze<\/strong> announced the decision<\/a> not\u00a0to put the agenda of negotiations to join the EU “before the end of 2028.”<\/strong>\u00a0That is the end of the legislature that began on Nov. 25 amid citizen protests and the boycott of parliamentary oppositions<\/strong>, whose deputies refused to occupy their seats in a chamber that the outgoing president, pro-European Salom\u00e9 Zourabichvili<\/strong>, defined<\/a>\u00a0as “unconstitutional.”<\/p>\n

Since the governing Georgian Dream<\/strong> party (in power since 2012) won yet another election on Oct. 26 – an election that\u00a0local and international observers denounced as irregular<\/strong> and the head of state as illegitimate – the small Caucasian country plunged<\/a> into a spiral of chaos that threatens to spill over into new political and social tensions<\/strong> with an unpredictable outcome.<\/p>\n

\"Irakli<\/a>
Georgian prime minister Irakli Kobakhidze (photo: Irakli Genedidze\/Afp)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Yesterday evening, the premier also declared that the government will reject any funding from Brussels<\/strong>, accusing the EU of exploiting\u00a0the accession negotiations process to “blackmail” Tbilisi<\/strong> and “organize a revolution” in Georgia. Despite this, Kobakhidze confirmed the goal of having Tbilisi join the twelve-star club by 2030 but reiterated (as he already did during his\u00a0campaign<\/a>) his willingness to join the EU “with dignity,”<\/strong> that is, without “selling out” national sovereignty.<\/p>\n

The street protests<\/h3>\n

\n

Tensions have already turned into violence<\/strong>. On the night between Thursday and Friday, thousands of demonstrators took to<\/a>\u00a0the streets of the capital to protest the government’s decision<\/strong>, waving Georgian and EU flags together and shouting anti-Russian chants. The response of the security forces was particularly harsh<\/strong>, with police in riot gear repeatedly charging civilians, using\u00a0tear gas grenades, water cannons, and pepper spray, and even assaulting, according to some accounts, journalists documenting the protests.<\/p>\n

In the front row, with the protesters, was Zourabichvili<\/strong>, who reportedly approached policemen provocatively asking whether they served the interests of Georgia or Russia and accused the government of having “declared war against its own people<\/strong>.” Speaking to the press along with opposition leaders, she labeled the events unfolding in the country in recent weeks as “a constitutional coup,<\/strong>” declaring herself “the only legitimate representative<\/strong>” of the nation, branding Kobakhidze’s executive as “non-existent and illegitimate.”<\/p>\n

\"Salom\u00e9<\/a>
Georgia’s President Salom\u00e9 Zourabichvili joins protesters in Tbilisi, Nov. 28, 2024 (photo: Giorgi Arjevanidze\/Afp)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The EU’s response<\/h3>\n

Also yesterday, the European Parliament, meeting in plenary in Strasbourg,<\/strong> adopted<\/a> by a vast\u00a0majority (444 votes in favor, 72 against, 82 abstentions) a resolution to strongly condemn the irregularities in the October vote<\/strong>, considered “yet another manifestation of the continued\u00a0democratic backsliding<\/strong>\u00a0of the country for which the ruling Georgian Dream is\u00a0fully responsible.”\u00a0The House also formally supported the demands of\u00a0the former Soviet republic’s opposition to hold new elections under international monitoring<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

The MEPs also called on the Commission and member states to reiterate the freezing of Georgia’s accession to the EU<\/strong> (announced<\/a> by the European Council last June, while in July, the EU cut off<\/a>\u00a0funding to the government ) and to impose personal sanctions<\/strong> on several leading figures in the Georgian leadership – including PM Kobakhidze and pro-Russian oligarch Bidzina Ivanishvili<\/strong>, founder of Georgian Dream (which de facto\u00a0operates as a party-machine at his beck and call) – and the suspension of formal contacts between the EU and Tbilisi.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The ruling Georgian Dream party has announced that it does not intend to continue negotiations with Brussels but will pursue reforms to join by the end of the decade. Tensions are sky-high in Tbilisi, with violent clashes between protesters and police. Strasbourg calls for sanctions on the Caucasian country’s leadership and a rerun of the October elections<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7876,"featured_media":409459,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"episode_type":"","audio_file":"","podmotor_file_id":"","podmotor_episode_id":"","cover_image":"","cover_image_id":"","duration":"","filesize":"","filesize_raw":"","date_recorded":"","explicit":"","block":"","jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":{"source_name":"","source_url":"","via_name":"","via_url":"","override_template":"0","override":[{"template":"1","single_blog_custom":"","parallax":"1","fullscreen":"1","layout":"right-sidebar","sidebar":"default-sidebar","second_sidebar":"default-sidebar","sticky_sidebar":"1","share_position":"top","share_float_style":"share-monocrhome","show_share_counter":"0","show_view_counter":"0","show_featured":"1","show_post_meta":"1","show_post_author":"1","show_post_author_image":"1","show_post_date":"1","post_date_format":"default","post_date_format_custom":"Y\/m\/d","show_post_category":"1","show_post_reading_time":"0","post_reading_time_wpm":"300","post_calculate_word_method":"str_word_count","show_zoom_button":"0","zoom_button_out_step":"2","zoom_button_in_step":"3","show_post_tag":"1","show_prev_next_post":"1","show_popup_post":"1","number_popup_post":"1","show_author_box":"0","show_post_related":"1","show_inline_post_related":"0"}],"override_image_size":"0","image_override":[{"single_post_thumbnail_size":"crop-500","single_post_gallery_size":"crop-500"}],"trending_post":"0","trending_post_position":"meta","trending_post_label":"Trending","sponsored_post":"0","sponsored_post_label":"Sponsored by","sponsored_post_name":"","sponsored_post_url":"","sponsored_post_logo_enable":"0","sponsored_post_logo":"","sponsored_post_desc":"","disable_ad":"0"},"jnews_primary_category":{"id":"","hide":""},"jnews_override_counter":{"override_view_counter":"0","view_counter_number":"0","override_share_counter":"0","share_counter_number":"0","override_like_counter":"0","like_counter_number":"0","override_dislike_counter":"0","dislike_counter_number":"0"},"footnotes":""},"categories":[25707],"tags":[29494,27047,26008,25822,27451,26963,26964,27910],"class_list":["post-409500","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-world-politics","tag-bidzina-ivanishvili-en","tag-eu-en","tag-accession-ue-georgia-en","tag-parliament-en","tag-georgia-and","tag-elezioni-georgia-2024-en","tag-irakli-kobakhidzeat","tag-salome-zourabichvili-en"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/409500","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7876"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=409500"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/409500\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":410996,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/409500\/revisions\/410996"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/409459"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=409500"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=409500"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=409500"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}