Georgian opposition supporters launch fireworks towards the police during a protest in front of the parliament building in Tbilisi on Tuesday. Photo: EPA-EFE/DAVID MDZINARISHVILI
Police in Georgia raided the offices of several opposition parties on Wednesday as the government continued its crackdown on the pro-EU protests in Tbilisi, according to Radio Tavisupleba, the Georgian service of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL).
Police officers raided the offices of the United National Movement, a pro-Western political party founded by former Georgian president Mikheil Saakashvili, and the Coalition for Change, an informal coalition of pro-Western liberal parties.
Georgian opposition figures Nika Gvaramia and Gela Khasaia were both violently detained on Wednesday, RFE/RL’s Georgian service reported. Gvaramia was reportedly thrown into a police car having been “physically assaulted” and left “unconscious”, Coalition for Change wrote on X.
Georgian media also reported the further arrests of opposition activists on Wednesday, including the leader of Georgian youth protest movement Dafioni Zviad Tsetskhladze.
The past week has seen tens of thousands of people take to the streets in the Georgian capital to protest the increasingly pro-Russian ruling Georgian Dream party’s decision to suspend talks on the country’s future EU membership as well as its plan to refuse budgetary grants from the bloc until the end of 2028.
The protests, which started on Thursday night, have continued each night since then, despite the government’s violent crackdown, which has seen at least 300 people detained.
At a press conference on Tuesday, Georgian Prime Minister Irakli Kobakhidze lauded the Georgian police for quashing the protests, accusing the opposition of “exploiting” young Georgians and urging parents to “keep their children away from any hotbeds of liberal fascism”. Kobakhidze also warned that members of the opposition and “even the leaders of wealthy NGOs” would not be able to “escape legal responsibility”.
In late October, Georgian Dream was announced the winner of the country’s parliamentary elections, prompting allegation of voter fraud from all four pro-European opposition parties, who subsequently refused to recognise the election results and announced that they would boycott the new parliament.
Georgian President Salome Zourabichvili urged the country’s partners to “put strong pressure on a ruling party that is driving the country over the cliff” in a post on X on Wednesday, while on Monday UN human rights chief Volker Türk called on the Georgian authorities to end the use of “unnecessary or disproportionate force against protesters”.
