Tens of thousands of people demonstrate in favor of Europe a week before the parliamentary elections in Georgia

MADRID 21 Oct. () –

Tens of thousands of people demonstrated this Sunday in the capital of Georgia, Tbilisi, under the slogan ‘Georgia chooses the EU’ to show their support for Europe less than a week before the parliamentary elections, which will be held this Saturday (26 October).

The march began from five different places in the capital to finally gather in Freedom Square, where the closing ceremony took place, marked by several interventions, in which that of the country’s president, Salomé Zurabishvili, stood out.

“I want to address our partners, Europeans and Americans. I want to tell them that we will be a partner and an ally that cannot even be dreamed of when we enter Europe,” declared the head of state in statements reported by the Georgian news agency Interpressnews.

Zurabishvili has stated that “nothing is more precious than freedom and peace” and has assured that those who have demonstrated are those “Georgians who enter Europe peacefully” and “with dignity.” “Today here is the Georgia of tomorrow and yesterday. When I say yesterday, it is not the one that was sunk in the Soviet clutches, but the free Georgia of our ancestors,” he maintained.

The ruling Georgian Dream party, in power since 2012, has improved its relations with Moscow in recent years, which has been the subject of criticism from both Brussels and Washington. This week, the European Parliament denounced the democratic regression in Georgia with the Georgian Dream Government, ensuring that it puts the European path and future accession to the bloc in check.

In a resolution critical of the Georgian government for recently adopting legislation inconsistent with European standards, the European Parliament noted that Tbilisi follows an authoritarian agenda and denounced attacks on press freedom and minority rights, as well as increasing anti-European rhetoric.

The parliamentary resolution came just one day after the European Commission announced that it will withhold 121 million euros of allocations to Georgia – which received candidate country status in 2023 – in response to the democratic retreat in the country after the approval of the foreign agents law.