The Prime Minister said that Georgia will not allow a revolution in the face of pro-European protests

TBILISI – Georgian Prime Minister Irakli Kobakhidze said Saturday the state will not allow revolution following protests against his government’s sudden freeze this week of Georgia’s EU accession process.

Kobakhidze’s Georgian Dream party said on Thursday it was suspending European Union accession talks for the next four years due to what it called “blackmail” of Georgia by the bloc, abruptly reversing a long-standing national goal.

EU membership is extremely popular in Georgia, with opinion polls consistently showing strong public support.

The freeze on bid talks was met with widespread anger in a country whose constitution enshrines the goal of EU membership.

The Prime Minister accused opponents of stopping EU accession of preparing a revolution modeled on the Maidan protests in Ukraine in 2014, which resulted in the overthrow of a pro-Russian president.

“In Georgia, the Maidan scenario cannot be realized. Georgia is a state, and the state, of course, will not allow this,” Georgian media quote Kobakhidze.

The country’s Interior Ministry said Saturday it detained 107 people in the capital Tbilisi overnight during a protest that saw demonstrators build barricades along the central Rustaveli Avenue and throw fireworks at riot police, who used water cannons and tear gas to disperse them. their.

More protests are planned for Saturday evening.

Hundreds of employees from Georgia’s foreign, defense, justice and education ministries, as well as the country’s central bank, signed open letters condemning the decision to freeze negotiations.

Khvicha Kvaratskhelia, a star of the Georgian national football team, spoke out in support of the protesters.

“My country is hurting, my people are suffering – it’s painful and emotional to watch the videos circulating, stop the violence and aggression! Today Georgia deserves Europe more than ever!” Kvaratskhelia wrote about this on Saturday on Facebook.

The suspension of EU accession caps months of deteriorating relations between Georgian Dream, which has faced accusations of authoritarian and pro-Russian tendencies, and the West.

The party is dominated by Bidzina Ivanishvili, a billionaire former prime minister who has taken an increasingly anti-Western stance.

Georgian Dream received almost 54% of the vote in October elections, which opposition parties said were rigged.

Both the ruling party and Georgia’s election commission say the vote was free and fair. Western countries have called for an investigation into the violations.

The EU has already said Georgia’s bid has been stalled by laws against “foreign agents” and LGBT rights, which it has called draconian and pro-Russian.

Meanwhile, Georgian Dream began to forge ties with neighboring Russia, from which Georgia gained independence in 1991.

The two countries have had no diplomatic relations since a brief war over the Moscow-backed rebel region in 2008, but they restored direct flights in 2023, and earlier this year Moscow lifted visa restrictions for Georgian citizens. REUTERS