Protests erupt in Georgia as it pulls back from pro-Western path

TBILISI, Georgia — Thousands of people demonstrated in front of the parliament building in the Georgian capital, Tbilisi, for a second day Friday after the government announced that the country had suspended its bid to join the European Union for four years.

The announcement has further deepened the conflict between the country’s opposition, which wants closer ties with the West, and the governing Georgian Dream party, which has been pivoting Georgia away from Europe toward Russia and China.

Prime Minister Irakli Kobakhidze said Thursday that the country was putting the process of accession into the European Union on hold until 2028. Kobakhidze also said that Georgia would decline all grants from the European Union, which has allocated more than $500 million to the country since 2019.

Thousands of protesters poured onto the streets outside the parliament building Thursday night but were dispersed by riot police using water cannons and tear gas. On Friday night, protesters returned, blocking a long stretch of Tbilisi’s main Rustaveli Avenue and the surrounding streets. Some protesters threw stones at police officers and tried to blind them with green laser pointers. Police responded with stun grenades and water cannons.

“We are against Russian politics, which we feel every day we wake up in the morning,” said David Kiknavelidze, 26, a musician. “We want to be free of it.”

Kiknavelidze said the problem the protesters had was that Georgia’s pro-Western opposition had been splintered and could not come up with a cohesive agenda.

“We are standing here, we are making everything to stay here, but we don’t have any plan,” he said as stun grenades exploded in background. “We don’t like our government, and we don’t like opposition, but we need to support it now.”

Police, some of them masked, appeared to be pushing and beating some protesters, as well as journalists who were covering the rally.

The Ministry of Internal Affairs said in a statement that its law enforcement officers detained 43 protesters Thursday. Police also said that 32 officers had been injured. The police detained more people Friday night.

A mountainous country of 3.7 million, Georgia has been at the crossroads of great power interests for centuries. The current political crisis was prompted by the disputed victory of the Georgian Dream in parliamentary elections in October.

The opposition, which received 61 of 150 seats, says the election was rigged and has since followed through on its vow to boycott the new parliament.

Kobakhidze said Georgia was not abandoning its long-term goal of joining the European Union, but was pausing to reconsider the terms of accession. At the same time, according to Imedi, a pro-government TV network in Georgia, he accused EU authorities of using accession talks as “a tool to blackmail our country and divide the public.”

He specifically mentioned calls by the European Union to repeal a recently passed package of laws that ban what is described as LGBTQ+ propaganda and a law that attempts to curb the influence of nongovernmental organizations funded by the West as “actions that amount to renouncing” Georgia’s dignity.

A representative for the European Commission, the bloc’s executive arm, declined to comment, although Reuters quoted the EU’s ambassador to Georgia as saying the move to suspend its membership bid was “heartbreaking.”

In 2013, a similar U-turn regarding ties to the West made by the government of President Viktor Yanukovych of Ukraine led to mass protests that lasted for months and ended in bloodshed and his fleeing the country for Russia.

The Georgian government’s announcement prompted outrage among the opposition, which regards the pursuit of EU membership as an existential choice that would mark the country’s departure from Moscow’s orbit forever.

President Salome Zourabichvili of Georgia, whose official powers are nominal but who has emerged in recent weeks as a vocal supporter of the opposition, accused the government of committing a “constitutional coup.”

President Vladimir Putin of Russia said Thursday that the Russian government would not interfere in Georgia’s political situation, but he also offered praise.

Speaking at a news conference, he said he was “amazed at their courage and the character they showed in order to defend their point of view.”

Georgia’s Constitution stipulates that the country’s government “shall take all measures” to “ensure the full integration of Georgia” into the EU and NATO.

That constitutional amendment, made in 2018, was endorsed by the Georgian Dream party, which has been steadily moving in the opposite direction since the start of the war in Ukraine.

This article originally appeared in The New York Times.

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