Tens of thousands of people demonstrated in Georgia to demand the resignation of the Government for not having achieved the candidacy for the European Union of this country on the shores of the Black Sea, on the border with Asia. The European Council gave Georgia the “European perspective” with the promise to re-examine the implementation of a total of 12 recommendations by the end of the year.
“We are Europe”
More than 35,000 protesters gathered in front of the Georgian Parliament, blocking traffic on the capital’s main thoroughfare and waving European and Georgian flags and “We are Europe” banners.
All opposition parties and several pro-European organizations had called the rally to increase pressure on the ruling Georgian Dream party, which is accused of drifting authoritarianism and damaging relations with Brussels.
“We demand that the oligarch Bidzina Ivanishvili (founder of Georgian Dream) resign from the executive power and transfer it, respecting the Constitution, to a government of national unity,” they asked in a Facebook post before the demonstration.
A new government must “carry out the reforms required by the EU that will automatically give us the status of a candidate for EU membership,” the text continues.
lack of democracy
For one of the protesters, the 45-year-old surgeon Nika Gorgaslidze, “Ivanishvili pulls the strings of the government, the parliament, the courts, the media: it is a system that is not democratic and is incompatible with Georgia’s goal of become a member of the EU.
“Our demonstrations will not stop until we have a new government capable of implementing the necessary reforms to become a member of the EU,” said Marina Sanodze, a 19-year-old student.
Georgia, which borders the Black Sea, applied to join the EU along with Ukraine and Moldova, two other former Soviet republics, just days after Russia attacked Ukraine on February 24.
But Brussels is asking Tbilisi for reforms to strengthen justice, press freedom and the electoral system, and to fight the oligarchs, in a country regularly rocked by political crises.
Prime Minister Irakli Garibashvili, of the Georgian Dream party, assured that his government is “mobilized” to achieve these reforms and obtain candidate status “as soon as possible.”