Over three hundred arrests, clashes in the capital and not only that, accusations of regime torture: the toll of anti-government demonstrations in Georgia provides a snapshot of the drama into which the Caucasian country has fallen, awaiting the election of the new one president of the Republic. Yet, a Tbilisia Batumia Kutaisithe square doesn’t stop.
Thousands also took to the streets on the seventh consecutive day of protests. On Wednesday evening the area surrounding the institutional buildings of the capital has flared up again, incited by what increasingly appears to be the point of reference for the pro-EU demonstrators: the president Salome Zurabishvili. «It’s time to put strong pressure on a party in government which is leading the country towards the abyss”, he wrote on X the former diplomat addressing international partners.
The Georgian government and the shadow of the Kremlin
The governing party (Georgian Dream) and its prime minister Irakli Kobakhidze however, they show no signs of showing any cracks. The election of Zurabishvili’s successor on December 14 is a given: the winner should be a loyalist of the oligarch Bidzina Ivanishvilipuppeteer of a party that in recent months has shown its determination to run into the arms of the Kremlin.
The favorite for the presidency is Mikheil Kavelashviliformer striker for the national team and Manchester City, who had his golden moment at the end of the nineties. The current head of state, however, has warned that he will not leave his position. On the contrary, in an interview with a channel YouTube Hungarian (and it is no coincidence that it is a Hungarian media, in the game of alliances of the pro-Russian Georgians) the prime minister underlined that Zurabishvili “will never be a leader of the opposition, because her mandate expires on 29 December”.
Accusations of torture and new waves of arrests
Meanwhile, the repression spreads its tentacles and worsens the toll of clashes and arrests. «The leader of the Georgian opposition party Akhali, Nika Gvaramiawas beaten and arrested by the police after a search of the party headquarters,” the independent television station reported live Pirveli.
According to opposition media, one of the leaders of the pro-EU youth movements is also under arrest. The Commissioner for Human Rights of Georgia, Levan Ioselianiaccused the police of “acts of torture” against demonstrators, while Zurabishvili denounced that the “ruling party has closed retail shops selling gas masks, protective glasses and helmets, leaving peaceful protesters without their basic protection.”
Protesters between determination and challenge
Despite everything, thousands have returned to the streets. Covered by blue-starred flagsprotesters marched towards the Georgian Parliament, pointing at gods green lasers to dazzle the special forces guarding the building. “We are on the right side of history”, was one of the slogans shouted by the crowd, regardless of the fact that the Constitutional Court Georgian government has sanctioned the legality of the parliamentary elections which saw the pro-Russian victory.
Parallels with Romania and the future of Eastern Europe
A legitimacy which, in the same hours, was also certified by another High Courtthat of Budapest, in a very similar context. The offending election was in fact the first round of the presidential elections in Romaniawhich saw the extremist and pro-Russian prevail Calin Georgescu. The run-off with the Liberal Elena Lasconi it will be Sunday, and for the pro-European movements it will be a new, dramatic crossroads.