{"id":476045,"date":"2025-10-05T14:44:11","date_gmt":"2025-10-05T14:44:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/476045\/"},"modified":"2025-10-05T14:44:11","modified_gmt":"2025-10-05T14:44:11","slug":"georgias-prime-minister-announces-crackdown-on-dissent-after-tbilisi-protests-georgia","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/476045\/","title":{"rendered":"Georgia\u2019s prime minister announces crackdown on dissent after Tbilisi protests | Georgia"},"content":{"rendered":"

Georgia\u2019s prime minister, Irakli Kobakhidze, has announced a sweeping crackdown on dissent, accusing demonstrators who tried to storm the presidential palace of aiming to topple his government and blaming the European Union<\/a> for interference in his country.<\/p>\n

Kobakhidze levelled his allegations a day after protesters attempted to breach the presidential palace as local elections were being held. They were stopped by riot police using pepper spray and water cannon.<\/p>\n

\u201cNo one will escape responsibility. This includes political responsibility,\u201d the Georgian news agency Interpress quoted the prime minister as saying.<\/p>\n

Officers detained at least five demonstrators, including two members of the United National Movement, the largest opposition party, and the opera singer turned activist Paata Burchuladze.<\/p>\n

Paata Burchuladze (left, in dark jacket), an opera singer and one of the rally\u2019s organisers, marched with opposition supporters in Tbilisi and was detained by police. Photograph: Zurab Tsertsvadze\/AP<\/p>\n

Local media cited the health ministry as saying 21 members of the security forces and six demonstrators had been injured in clashes in the centre of Tbilisi.<\/p>\n

The South Caucasus country has been in turmoil since Kobakhidze\u2019s ruling Georgian Dream (GD) party claimed victory<\/a> in last year\u2019s parliamentary election, which the pro-EU opposition says was stolen<\/a>. Since then, Tbilisi\u2019s talks on joining the bloc have been frozen.<\/p>\n

Kobakhidze said up to 7,000 people attended Saturday\u2019s opposition rally but their \u201cattempt to overthrow the constitutional order\u201d had been thwarted despite what he said was EU backing.<\/p>\n

\u201cSeveral people have already been arrested \u2013 first and foremost the organisers of the attempted overthrow,\u201d he told reporters, saying the country\u2019s main opposition force \u201cwill no longer be allowed to be active in Georgian politics\u201d.<\/p>\n

Irakli Kobakhidze, seen here last week at a meeting of the European Political Community in Copenhagen, said Georgia\u2019s main opposition force would \u2018no longer be allowed to be active in Georgian politics\u2019. Photograph: Thomas Traasdahl\/EPA<\/p>\n

Opposition figures had called for a \u201cpeaceful revolution\u201d against GD, which they accuse of being pro-Russian and authoritarian. The party has been in power since 2012.<\/p>\n

Thousands of protesters gathered in the heart of the capital, waving Georgian and EU flags, after months of Kremlin-style raids on independent media, restrictions on civil society and the detention of dozens of opponents<\/a> and activists. The jailed reformist ex-president Mikheil Saakashvili<\/a> had urged supporters to protest on election day for what he called the \u201clast chance\u201d to save Georgian democracy.<\/p>\n

Kobakhidze accused the EU\u2019s ambassador to Georgia, Pawe\u0142 Herczy\u0144ski, <\/strong>of meddling. \u201cYou know that specific people from abroad have even expressed direct support for all this, for the announced attempt to overthrow the constitutional order,\u201d he said, adding that Herczy\u0144ski \u201cbears special responsibility in this context\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201c[Herczy\u0144ski] should come out, distance himself and strictly condemn everything that is happening on the streets of Tbilisi,\u201d said Kobakhidze.<\/p>\n

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Demonstrators attempted to reach the presidential palace in Tbilisi on Saturday. Photograph: Zurab Tsertsvadze\/AP<\/p>\n

In July, the EU\u2019s diplomatic service rejected what it called \u201cdisinformation and baseless accusations\u201d about the EU\u2019s alleged role in Georgia.<\/p>\n

The pro-western opposition has been staging protests<\/a> since last October, when GD won a parliamentary election that its critics say was marred by fraud. The party has rejected accusations of vote-rigging. GD claimed victory in every municipality across the country of 3.7 million people in an election boycotted by the two largest opposition blocs.<\/p>\n

Georgia has the aim of EU accession written into its constitution and has long been among the most pro-western of the Soviet Union\u2019s successor states. Its ties with the west have been strained since Russia\u2019s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022.<\/p>\n

GD is controlled by its founder, Bidzina Ivanishvili<\/a>, the country\u2019s richest man and a former prime minister, and denies it is pro-Moscow. It says it wants to join the EU while preserving peace with Russia.<\/p>\n

Reuters and Agence France-Presse contributed to this report<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Georgia\u2019s prime minister, Irakli Kobakhidze, has announced a sweeping crackdown on dissent, accusing demonstrators who tried to storm…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":476046,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[12,26],"class_list":{"0":"post-476045","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world","8":"tag-news","9":"tag-world"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115322098546233542","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/476045","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=476045"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/476045\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/476046"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=476045"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=476045"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=476045"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}