Georgia’s government ruled out talks with the opposition as protesters and police clashed for a fifth night running and the president of the Black Sea state urged the West to take action against a ruling party that she accused of “serving Russian interests”.
Thousands of people gathered again in the centre of the capital, Tbilisi, on Monday evening, and some launched fireworks at the national parliament building as riot police stationed inside sprayed the growing crowd with jets of water from fire hoses.
Protests erupted last Thursday when prime minister Irakli Kobakhidze said his government would take European Union membership talks “off the agenda” until at least 2028, and accused the bloc of using the issue to “blackmail” the ruling Georgian Dream party, which was sharply criticised by many western politicians this year for tightening controls on civil society groups and restricting LGBT+ rights in the country of 3.7 million.
His announcement also reignited anger over parliamentary elections in October that opposition parties and Georgian president Salome Zourabichvili said were rigged by Georgian Dream, which critics say is taking the country back towards Moscow at the behest of its leader, Bidzina Ivanishvili, a billionaire who made his fortune in Russia.
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“There will be no talks with the opposition. At this point, there is no basis whatsoever for dialogue with them,” Mr Kobakhidze said on Monday, as officials said more than 200 people had been arrested at the protests and more than 100 police officers injured.
It is not clear how many demonstrators have been hurt, but police have been filmed kicking and punching detainees. Ms Zourabichvili and a prominent lawyers’ association in Georgia said many of those detained had suffered facial and head injuries while in custody.
“There are clearly protests everywhere and the repression is so savagely carried on that it is only leading to increased protests. Every day there are more people on the streets and in different cities of Georgia,” Ms Zourabichvili told Polish television on Monday evening, describing the growth of a “civil rebellion movement” and “situation of national dissent”.
Accusing special forces units of showing “savagery” towards protesters, she said: “This is intolerable and I think our European partners have to react to that very strongly.”
Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania imposed entry bans on Mr Ivanishvili, Georgian interior minister Vakhtang Gomelauri and nine other Georgian officials on Monday over their alleged responsibility for the violent crackdown.
“Canada is in solidarity with the Georgian people and we are very concerned about what Russia is trying to do in Georgia, and ... we will follow suit and sanction key individuals and also businesses, entities that are involved in either human rights violations or corruption,” Canadian foreign minister Melanie Joly said after meeting counterparts from the three Baltic countries.
Georgian Dream denies that it is moving back into the Kremlin’s orbit and insists it wants to join the EU eventually. Polls show that 80 per cent of the population supports EU membership in a country that fought a brief war with Russia in 2008, and where Moscow’s military now de facto occupies about a fifth of national territory.
The ruling party also denies rigging October’s elections, but opposition deputies are boycotting their mandates and Ms Zourabichvili says she will not step down when her term ends later this month because no legitimate parliament exists to choose her successor.
The US halted its strategic partnership with Georgia at the weekend over the ruling party’s alleged anti-western and anti-democratic turn, but Mr Kobakhidze says he believes good relations will be restored when Donald Trump returns to the White House in January.
