Thousands of Georgians formed human chains across the country on Saturday, in support of the European Union membership, marking second month of their daily pro-Europe rallies.
Mass street protests gripped Georgia since November 28, when the ruling Georgian Dream party’s increasingly authoritarian government said it will not seek the opening of EU accession talks until 2028.
The protest came a day before a controversial inauguration of Georgian Dream loyalist Mikheil Kavelashvili as the county’s new president, after his election was declared “illegitimate” by the current leader Salome Zurabishvili and the pro-Western opposition.
On Saturday afternoon, thousands of demonstrators, waving Georgian and EU flags, lined the Mtkvari River embankment and several bridges in the capital, Tbilisi, forming a kilometres-long human chain, and AFP reporter saw.
“I Want to Hold Your Hand,” a hit song by the English rock band the Beatles, echoed from speakers mounted on a car as it drove along the human chain.
Zurabishvili — at loggerheads with the ruling party -– has joined the demonstrators at Tbilisi’s Dry Bridge.
Similar rallies were held across Georgia, including in the cities of Batumi, Kutaisi, Zugdidi, Poti, Samtredia, Rustavi, Gori, Khashuri, Telavi and Gurjaani, local media reported.
On the Metekhi Bridge in Tbilisi’s historic district, protesters displayed a banner reading “Freedom for political prisoners.”
“We demand fresh elections,” read another banner at Tbilisi’s modernist Peace Bridge.
“Everyone must understand that the protests will not stop until all the demands are met,” one demonstrator, a 23-year-old international relations student Teimuraz Tsiklauri, told AFP.
Protesters then marched to their usual gathering spot outside parliament.
‘Torture’
In the first 10 days of protests, riot police used tear gas and water cannons to disperse demonstrators — some of whom threw fireworks and stones.
The interior ministry reported more than 400 arrests, while the country’s top human rights official, ombudsman Levan Ioseliani and Amnesty International have accused security forces of “torturing” those detained.
The reported police brutality has drawn growing international condemnation, with Washington and several European countries imposing visa bans on Georgian Dream officials.
On Friday, the United States imposed sanctions on Georgia’s former prime minister and the honorary chairman of Georgian Dream, Bidzina Ivanishvili, saying he undermined the country’s democratic future for Russia’s benefit.
Oligarch Ivanishvili, Georgia’s richest man, is widely regarded as the de facto leader of Georgia, despite holding no official position.
The EU-candidate Black Sea nation’s government faces accusations of an authoritarian, pro-Russian shift that has undermined Georgia’s EU bid, a goal enshrined in the constitution and supported by 80 percent of the population.
