Georgian police crack down on pro-EU demonstrators after halting EU membership bid ‘until 2028’
Protester with ‘Reclaim the vote’ sticker outside parliament on November 17, 2024. Image by Mariam Nikuradze/OC Media used with permission.
This article was first published on OC Media. An edited version is republished here under a content partnership agreement.
Georgia Prime Minister Irakli Kobakhidze announced on November 28 that Georgia was halting its EU membership bid “until 2028.” The news sparked widespread demonstrations as thousands took to the streets and demanded the government continue its EU trajectory. Riot police in the capital, Tbilisi, have violently cracked down on the protestors and arrested dozens.
In his announcement, the prime minister added that the government would also be refusing any budgetary support from the EU. The latter was in response to the EU's previous announcement that it was halting funding to the Georgian government over the controversial foreign agent law and other anti-democratic moves by the ruling Georgian Dream party.
Exactly one year ago, the European Commission recommended that the EU grant Georgia candidate status, but anti-democratic developments within the country have derailed its plan to become an EU member.
In October, Georgian Dream was reelected in what independent observers described as an unfree and unfair election and called for the vote to be redone. This included the country's President Salome Zourabichvili and four key opposition groups. However, there was no budging from the ruling party, which has further distanced the country from its EU aspirations.
The results have also been challenged in the Constitutional Court, which has yet to make a final ruling. Since the October election, the country has been rocked by protests and drawn harsh criticism from the EU, including a resolution adopted by the European Parliament on November 28 rejecting the legitimacy of Georgia’s parliamentary election and calling for a new vote within a year. Despite the calls, the ruling government approved the mandates of all 150 MPs on November 25, ignoring the explicit dissent of 61 opposition members who were absent during the opening of the parliament in Tbilisi, some of them protesting outside the parliament alongside other demonstrators.
A number of the country’s top legal and constitutional experts have stated that approving mandates while the results of the election were being challenged in the Constitutional Court represented an outright violation of the constitution.
Changing tides
Georgia formally applied for European Union (EU) membership in March 2022. The move represented a U-turn for the ruling party, which had insisted it would not accelerate its initial timeline of applying for membership in 2024.
The shift was largely driven by increasing pressure from the domestic opposition, as well as thousands of protesters who participated in a “March for Europe,” organized by Georgia's liberal activist group, the Shame movement, and other pro-democracy groups in a bid to “demonstrate the commitment of Georgian people to its European choice and Western values.”
In June 2022, Georgia's candidate status was denied, and the state was given a list of 12 conditions the country had to fulfill before their application could be reexamined. Among these conditions were reducing political polarization, reforming the judiciary, ensuring functioning state institutions, strengthening anti-corruption measures, including de-oligarchisation, and others.
Then, in December 2023, Georgia was finally granted this status following an EU Council meeting. That decision, however, came amid a growing rift between Georgia's ruling government and Western allies as well as the local civil society groups insisting that the government has failed to fulfill the 12 priority conditions.
The government continued to crack down on freedoms and human rights with violent dispersals of protests, attacks on the independent media, and a widening rift between society and state leadership.
The ruling party has faced criticism for its deepening anti-LGBTQ+ stance, all the while cozying up with Russia ever since the latter invaded Ukraine. Last year, the ruling party attempted to impeach the country's president but failed to do so.
The country's track record on freedoms and democracy has also been deteriorating. In May 2024, the government adopted a controversial foreign agent bill despite ongoing protests against the law. The bill severely restricts all media outlets and non-governmental organizations in Georgia, and according to local civil society, it “would entail monitoring from the government, which could compromise organizations’ internal communications and confidential sources.”
Pushback against the new government
The official results of the October elections gave the ruling Georgian Dream party a large majority in parliament, with 54 percent of the vote, an increase from the previous 48 percent support the party received in the 2020 election.
The final results were released by the Central Election Commission on November 18, confirming Georgian Dream's victory and prompting more protests by opposition groups and the public at large, accusing the CEC of dismissing documented widespread electoral fraud and irregularities.
On Thursday, November 28, the ruling Georgian Dream party approved a slightly reshuffled government cabinet led by incumbent Prime Minister Irakli Kobakhidze. The new government was endorsed without a single opposition member present, as the new parliament has been boycotted by all four opposition groups.
The same day, Kobakhidze announced that Georgia was halting its EU membership bid.
All four major opposition groups instantly condemned the announcement. The outgoing president, Zourabichvili, called the move a “constitutional coup.”
Kobakhidze's announcement sparked more protests. Thousands of demonstrators stayed overnight on Rustaveli Avenue, one of the key streets in Tbilisi, periodically clashing with riot police who were using pepper spray, water cannons, tear gas, and physical violence against demonstrators, opposition figures, and journalists.
While several demonstrators were detained throughout the night, the Interior Ministry has yet to confirm the number of detainees.
In Tbilisi, protesters gathered around the ruling Georgian Dream party’s headquarters before proceeding to march to Rustaveli Avenue, where parliament is also located.
Tensions between the protesters and police continued to escalate throughout the night, as police heavily reinforced their numbers as the protest went on. The Ministry of Interior later published a statement saying that the demonstration had gone “beyond the norms established by the Law of Georgia on Assemblies and Demonstrations.” Riot police then escalated by indescriminently deploying large amounts of pepper spray and water cannons to disperse the protesters from the sides of parliament onto Rustaveli Avenue.
Throughout the protest, footage regularly emerged of police violently assaulting and detaining protesters.
Human rights organisations condemned the riot police’s use of force, describing them as measures “carried out with the use of unlawful and disproportionate force.”
At around 6:00 am on November 29, the opposition Coalition for Change group stated that two of their leaders, Elene Khoshtaria and Nana Malashkhia, were injured during the protest.
Journalists detained, beaten, and abused
During the protest, numerous reports emerged of journalists being targeted by riot police.
OC Media’s journalist and co-director, Mariam Nikuradze, was hit by the water cannons. She sought medical care at an ambulance nearby shortly after, reporting that there was likely pepper spray mixed in with the water.
Nikuradze’s camera was damaged. The police also knocked Nikuradze’s phone out of her hand as she was filming them marching through the street.
Riot police have also fired tear gas directly at OC Media’s editor-in-chief Robin Fabbro on Lesia Ukrainka Street, a side street off of Rustaveli Avenue despite him wearing a vest that clearly marked member of the press on it.
Journalist Aleksandre Keshelashvili, from the Georgian news outleet Publika, was also reportedly temporarily detained by the police. In a Facebook post, Keshelashvili wrote that upon his detention, he tried to tell the police that he was a journalist, but said that it only made the police — who were masked — insult and beat him more. Keshelashvili says that the police confiscated his cameras, press ID, and gas mask.
TV Formula published footage appearing to show a riot police officer tackling and hitting their journalist, Guram Rogava, on the head, who was hospitalized due to the injuries.
TV Pirveli reported that one of their camera operators, Niko Kokaia, was injured while covering the protests on Rustaveli. Kokaia said the police used pepper spray directly on his face from close range.
At around 7:00 am, RFE/RL’s journalist, Dato Tsagareli, was reportedly punched in the stomach by a masked riot police officer while he was covering the protest.
Water cannons were also used to hit journalists on duty. President Zourabichvili has posted on X (formerly Twitter) in solidarity with journalists, saying that she stood “with the Georgian media, who are disproportionately targeted and attacked while doing their job and reporting continuously.”