Georgia protests: What's driving the crisis?

Every evening since November 28, 2024, has seen massive protests in Georgia. Citizens are enraged by the new government's plan to pause EU accession talks. It hasn't always been peaceful: protesters have pelted police with objects and shot fireworks at them; the police, in turn, have used tear gas and water cannons against protesters.

While nationalist Prime Minister Irakli Kobakhidze of ruling party Georgian Dream accuses the opposition of intentionally using violence during the protests and has threatened to punish political opponents, Georgia's pro-European President Salome Zourabichvili has decried excessive police violence.

The Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) concurs with Zourabichvili, speaking of the "excessive and arbitrary use of violence" by police, calling it a "serious violation of freedom of assembly."

According to Georgia's Interior Ministry, 300 people have been arrested in this latest wave of protests. More than 140, it said, have been injured.

What are Georgians protesting?

Protests in the former Soviet republic began more than a month ago. The spark that ignited them was a contentious parliamentary election on October 26. Although Georgia's Central Election Commission declared the pro-Russian Georgian Dream party the winner with 54% of the vote, many in the country have refused to accept the result and have called for new elections.

President Zourabichvili and her opposition partners claim the election was stolen. The opposition cited the claim as the reason for its boycott of the new parliament, which they say is illigitimate. Election observers from the OSCE, the European Commission, the EU parlaiment and NATO have all voiced doubt about the official result.

Protests, which had seemed to have died down, immediately resumed when Prime Minister Kobakhidze announced last week that his government would pause Georgia's accession talks with the EU until 2028. Georgia has been an official accession candidate since December 2023, but Brussels froze talks in July after the Moscow-friendly government passed several questionable laws, including one — modeled on a Russian law — outlawing "foreign influence," and another that the EU said discriminated against sexual minorities.

The aim of joining the EU is anchored in Georgia's constitution and polling suggests that some 80% of Georgians back EU membership. The crisis is a direct result of the government's disregard for the will of the majority of its citizens, conjuring comparisons to Ukraine's 2014 Maidan protests and the 2020 anti-Lukashenko protests in Belarus.

What is next for Georgia?

On December 3, Georgia's Constitutional Court rejected President Zourabichvili's request to annul the results of the October vote, saying the court would not review the issue and that the decision was "final."

NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte called the situation in Georgia "deeply concering." Rutte said NATO partners had called on the Georgian government to remain on the path to EU and NATO integration.

Numerous European leaders have also vehemently criticized the government in Tbilisi. The Baltic states Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania all leveled sanctions against the billionaire founder of Georgian Dream, Bidzina Ivanishvili, and other high-ranking officials.

Whether the government in Tbilisi will change its course in the face of ongoing mass protests and criticism from abroad is doubtful. Still, on December 3, Prime Minister Kobakhidze announced that he would be willing to sit down with two former ministers and an opposition party to discuss a European perspective for Georgia.

This article was translated from German by Jon Shelton