MADRID 1 Ene. (EUROPA PRESS) –
Tens of thousands of citizens protest in Georgia in front of the country’s parliament during the new year celebrations in favor of accession to the European Union and against the pro-Russian inclination of the local government.
The Black Sea nation, mired in a constitutional crisis since the ruling Georgian Dream party claimed victory in the parliamentary elections last October, suspended talks with Brussels on November 28 for the country’s entry into the bloc. community until at least 2028.
“2024 was the year of our unity and 2025 will be the year of our victory,” said the outgoing president, Salomé Zurabishvili, during the protests, critical of the ruling party and who has joined the protesters during the last hours in the capital, Tbilisi, where flags of the European Union and Georgia fly.
The foreign ministers of Germany, France and Poland have declared in recent hours that the Georgian authorities should consider holding new elections as a way out of the country’s political crisis with the aim of also ending the police repression registered in the last hours.
However, the protests taking place in Georgia are not solely a result of the recent elections or the use of tear gas and water cannons against protesters. The country’s political crisis began at the beginning of the year, although it worsened in May when the proposal for a law similar to that used in Russia to repress political opposition was announced.
This legislation, backed by the ruling party and its de facto leader, Bidzina Ivanishvili, threatened the country’s aspirations for EU membership. Specifically, on May 28, the Georgian parliament passed the “foreign influence” bill, overriding a presidential veto. A legislative project that Brussels considered to be incompatible with European standards and threatened to stop Georgia’s integration into the union.
Opponents described the approval of the text as the “day of betrayal” and pro-EU Georgian citizens, who represent almost 80% of the population, considered it a move away from Europe towards Russia.