TBILISI: Thousands of protesters held a protest rally outside the Georgian parliament on Sunday amid mounting opposition to the government.
Critics accuse the ruling Georgian Dream party of being under the sway of Russia and abandoning democracy. The government is accused of imprisoning political opponents and silencing independent media outlets. According to BBC News, the main opposition party organized the rally in support of imprisoned former President Mikheil Saakashvili.
Saakashvili, president for two terms between 2004 and 2013, is currently serving a six-year sentence for abuse of power. On the other hand, international human rights organizations have condemned his conviction as politically motivated. Last month, mass protests forced the government to drop a bill that would have required any non-governmental organization receiving funds from abroad to register as an ” agent of foreign influence.”
Opponents argued that the bill was modeled after one introduced in Russia in 2012 to suppress dissent and was a step towards authoritarianism. During the protests, police used water cannons and pepper spray on protesters. On Sunday, demonstrators outside Tbilisi’s parliament building waved Georgian, Ukrainian, and European Union flags and held a large banner that read: “For a European future.”
Georgians are overwhelmingly pro-EU, and the government says it remains committed to the country’s EU membership bid. Opponents argue that Georgia’s actions jeopardize its chances of membership.
Georgia, Ukraine, and Moldova applied for EU membership
Georgia, Ukraine, and Moldova applied for EU membership days after Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022. The EU formally named Ukraine and Moldova as candidate member states in June. Still, Georgia was told it needed to implement several political and judicial reforms before being granted the status.
Addressing the rally, Levan Khabeishvili, chair of the United National Movement party, which Saakashvili founded, called for the “liberation of political prisoners” and introduced the reforms Brussels has requested.
Giorgi Margvelashvili, who took over as president after Saakashvili, told the audience that the Georgian government was “controlled from Moscow, and we must save our homeland from Russian stooges.” “We are freedom-loving people, part of the European family; we reject Russian slavery,” he said.
According to one of the demonstrators, 27-year-old painter Luka Kavsadze, “Our struggle will be peaceful but uncompromising and will lead us to where we belong – the European Union.”
Saakashvili has staged several hunger strikes in recent months, and his supporters claim he is being denied proper healthcare.
Saakashvili has also claimed he was poisoned in prison, though Georgian authorities have accused him of feigning illness to gain an early release. Saakashvili stated earlier this week in an article for the Politico website that he was dying from “a bewildering array of over 20 serious illnesses.”
