Unprecedented protests sweep Georgia after government scraps EU bid

The Georgian government’s decision to suspend its efforts to join the EU has sparked a political crisis in the South Caucasus country, with tens of thousands of people taking to the streets to demand new elections even as police launched a violent crackdown on protesters.

An estimated 100,000 protesters formed barricades around the parliament on Saturday night, with fire seen coming from the assembly building. Authorities deployed water cannons and fired tear gas into the crowds, while videos posted online showed officers violently attacking unarmed demonstrators.

Prime Minister Irakli Kobakhidze said that police arrested Russian citizens in the demonstrations and that there was a British national who unlawfully invaded the parliament.

“We may be dealing with foreign instigators, organizing violent groups,” said Kobakhidze, who called for an investigation into the outside influences.

The unrest, which has escalated over three successive nights of protests, comes after Kobakhidze said Georgia would no longer actively seek to join the EU and would reject funding from the bloc until at least 2028, despite having previously vowed to become a member by the end of the decade.

A string of top officials including the Georgian ambassadors to Italy, the Netherlands and Lithuania have resigned in protest at the move, as well as Deputy Foreign Minister Temur Janjali.

“What we see is this resistance has really gone beyond previous public demonstrations,” said Tinatin Akhvlediani, a senior researcher with the EU foreign policy unit at the Centre for European Policy Studies. “The ruling Georgian Dream party is in trouble because it’s difficult to see how they can justify making this announcement given widespread support for joining the EU, and it looks like they will use all their forces to silence people.”

On Saturday night, Georgian President Salome Zourabichvili — who has previously accused Georgian Dream of rigging October’s parliamentary elections — insisted the government had “no mandate” to stay in power. The unrest, she said, “is not a revolution, it is stability,” and called for the EU to step in to oversee a new round of voting.

In a resolution passed on Thursday, the European Parliament agreed that the election had been “neither free nor fair,” echoing concerns from international election observers who warned the process had been marred by intimidation and vote buying. Georgian Dream was returned to power with a sizeable majority despite growing concerns over its break with the EU — and broad public support for joining the bloc.

Speaking to POLITICO, Nathalie Louiseau, a French MEP and vice-chair of the EU-Georgia Parliamentary Association, said the bloc’s new leadership — foreign affairs chief Kaja Kallas, incoming European Council President Antonio Costa and enlargement boss Marta Kos — need to rise to meet the challenge. “I would strongly encourage them to go to Tbilisi, meet with the President and the protesters, and ask for new elections,” Louiseau said.

EU officials announced in July that Georgia’s membership application had been frozen after the ruling party introduced a string of Russian-style legislation, branding Western-backed NGOs as ‘foreign agents’ and cracking down on LGBTQ+ rights. Authorities used force to dispel crowds protesting against the rules, deploying tear gas and batons, while opposition figures were detained and beaten.

The U.S. imposed sanctions on Georgian Dream politicians and police chiefs over the violence.

The U.N.’s special rapporteur on freedom of assembly, Gina Romero, said reports of police violence over the weekend were “disturbing” and called on Georgian Dream “to respect the right to freedom of peaceful assembly.”

Dato Parulava contributed reporting.