Georgians take to the streets of Tbilisi to protest the “electoral fraud” that distances them from the European dream

Georgia is plunging into a political crisis that could distance the country from the European dream. This Monday afternoon, thousands of Georgians gathered in front of the Parliament headquarters in Tbilisi (the capital), to protest against the victory of the ruling party, the pro-Russian Georgian Dreamin Saturday’s elections. Results that have been questioned by the opposition, but not only: also by NATO and the European Union.

On Sunday, the Georgian president, Salome Zourabichvilirejected the results offered by the Central Electoral Commission that gave victory, with 54% of the votes, to the formation that leads leading the country for 12 years. “We have been witnesses and victims of a special Russian operation“said the head of state, whose functions are practically ceremonial. The accusation was shared by opposition leaders – four political parties united in the cause of bringing Georgia closer to the West, but divided in the formula -, who repeated the idea that there had been “total fraud”, “theft of votes” and a “institutional coup”.

Discontent and indignation spread to the streets after Zourabichvili – who has been in conflict for months with the Executive for its autocratic and anti-Western drift – invited citizens to rise up against “illegitimate results” in his first speech. During the protests, which were estimated to have been attended by 15,000 people, the head of state declared among shouts of support that “they have stolen our future”. However, he vowed that he will be with the Georgians “on the European path to the end.”

Likewise, the president announced that she had spoken with six presidents of other countries about the situation and that “none recognized the elections” in which the official party won.

The truth is that during election day, several local and international monitoring organizations – among them the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) – denounced a series of violations that could have affected the result, such as ballot manipulation or voter intimidation. There were, in fact, violent episodes in several voting centers.

None of the observers has directly pointed to electoral fraud, but to the “democratic regression” of the country. NATO, for its part, has echoed the doubts that weigh on the parliamentary elections and has underlined the “lack of public trust” in the result. The European Union, on the other hand, has been more forceful and has denounced a campaign of Russian disinformation and anti-European rhetoric. “unprecedented”. Thus, both the Atlantic Alliance and Brussels have requested that possible irregularities be investigated.

Despite this being a widespread opinion, the Hungarian Prime Minister, Viktor Orbánhas completely distanced itself from the block. Shortly after the results were known, the president recognized the victory of Sueño Georgiano. Not content with that, on Monday he staged his support for the pro-Kremlin party with a visit to Tbilisi, taking advantage of the fact that his country holds the current presidency of the EU Council.

For its part, the Kremlin accused external forces – referring to the United States and the EU – of trying destabilize the situation in the Caucasian nation by questioning the cleanliness of the elections, reports Efe.

Accession, frozen

Surveys indicate that 80% of Georgia’s population is in favor of entering the European Union. However, Georgian Dream, which came to power in 2012, has become increasingly authoritarian and has done everything possible to stop European advance with increasingly conservative policies aligned with those of the Kremlin. The clearest case is, perhaps, the adoption of a law on foreign agents similar to the one in Russia, but also the regulations against “LGBT propaganda”.

Precisely because of these policies, which move away from the values ​​of the bloc, Brussels froze the accession process in the summer of Georgia, which had received candidate country status in December of last year.