The clashes between dozens of protesters and police officers at the gates of the presidential palace in Tbilisi, on Saturday night, have served the Georgia government to try to criminalize their repressive policies. The prime minister, the first – who in December – also affirmed this Sunday, without providing evidence, that “foreign diplomats directly supported yesterday’s opposition actions, whose objective declared was the overthrow of the constitutional order.”
The incident, from which the opposition parties are disconnected, took place after municipal elections held on Saturday and won the ruling party. The elections had been boycotted by the opposition, which does not recognize the results of the parliamentary elections of 2024 or the dismissal of President Salome Zourabichvili in October of the same year. In the local elections on Saturday, to which the opposition matches refused to present – except two, Lelo and Gajaria for Georgia -, Georgian dream obtained 80.79% of the votes and 64 mayors were awarded.
Tens of thousands of Georgians concentrated on Saturday on the central Rustaveli Avenue of the capital to protest against an executive who consider illegitimate. In parallel, a small group of dozens of people deviated to the Orbeliani Palace, the residence of the new president, Míjeil Kavelashvili. There, the clash with the police resulted in some street fires and the use of tear gas by security forces.
He has taken advantage of the incident to accuse the entire opposition as a whole of “trying to overthrow the constitutional order” and to denounce an alleged foreign interference from the West. The prime minister urged the United States to resume relations with his government, but he went especially to the EU, from where, according to him, “the greatest hostility towards the people of Georgia comes from the support for support [de este] to Georgian dream ”.
The Kobakhidze party, directed in the shadow by an entrepreneur with links with Moscow, copied from Russia – like the legislation of foreign agents -, while trying to infuse fear among the population by arguing that it could lead to a Russian invasion. International observers of the 2024 elections confirmed these pressures on voters.
The opposition is disconnected from the riots
All opposition parties immediately disconnect from the conato of violence on Saturday. “This mockery attempt to take the presidential palace could only be organized by the regime to discredit 310 days of peaceful protests of the Georgian people,” said Zourabichvili, who was president between 2018 and 2024, through his profile in X.
However, Murtaz Zodeleva, a member of the United National Movement, founded by the former president, called during his harangue the public this Saturday to “demand the keys of the presidential palace.” This group obtained third place in the 2024 presidential elections with 16 of 150 seats.
The Georgian president has mentioned the peaceful demonstrations unleashed since the appointment of the new president by the Chambers in December 2024, two months after the parliamentary elections. “As a legitimate president formally rejection this (the riots) and I continue to support my people peacefully until we win new elections,” added Zourabichvili.
A visible head of peaceful protests, opera singer Paata Burchuladze, was arrested by the police in the hospital to which it was transferred by tear gas poisoning. “I will submit to a medical examination and return with the protesters,” he said in statements to the media before being arrested.
Four leaders of the opposition alliance Coalition for change remain detained. “The fight against the regime will continue,” he warned the platform through a statement.
“The only source of destabilization, crisis and violence in Georgia is Ivanishvili and its repressive system. That is why new political prisoners appear today in the country,” adds the message of the opposition coalition.
The ruling party has managed the independent media with their law of foreign agents. One of the official televisions, IMEDI TV, published an alleged conversation between one of the leaders of the protests this Saturday and the former Minister of Defense Bacho Ajalaia in which they defended that “blood” and “broken heads” were necessary. The platform Myth detector The Foundation for the Development of the Media revealed that more than 75% of the conversation had been generated by artificial intelligence.
