halting talks<\/a> on joining the EU.<\/p>\nThousands of protesters poured into the streets following Kobakhidze\u2019s speech, rallying outside the parliament building in Tbilisi and staging demonstrations in other cities.<\/p>\n
While the size of the rallies has since fallen, demonstrators have continued to gather each day.<\/p>\n
Protester Sopo Batilashvili accused the government of taking away \u201cthe future our ancestors fought for and that we were proud of.\u201d<\/p>\n
Georgia\u2019s ruling Georgian Dream party has tried to curb the movement by tightening rules on public assemblies, as well as passing a wave of laws targeting rights groups, nongovernmental organizations and independent media.<\/p>\n
Critics say some have been modeled on legislation passed in Russia, where President Vladimir Putin has harshly stifled dissent.<\/p>\n
Wearing face masks, blocking roads or erecting temporary structures now carries up to 15 days of administrative detention for protest participants and 20 days for organizers.<\/p>\n
First-time offenders previously faced a fine of 500 Georgian lari ($185). That amount has been multiplied tenfold to 5,000 lari ($1,850). A second offense brings criminal charges.<\/p>\n
Hundreds have been detained under the new law. Among them is Rusiko Kobakhidze, a mother of nine and researcher at the Soviet Past Research Laboratory, who has been protesting daily outside Parliament.<\/p>\n
Kobakhidze was arrested twice in November for blocking a street during protests and received sentences of one and four days behind bars.<\/p>\n
\u201cFor my children and grandchildren, I don\u2019t want a country where they cannot speak openly, where they will be treated unjustly and won\u2019t find justice,\u201d she told The Associated Press.<\/p>\n
Authorities have also intensified pressure on opposition parties.<\/p>\n
Georgian Dream has petitioned the Constitutional Court to ban the country\u2019s three main opposition groups \u2014 the United National Movement, Akhali\/Coalition for Change and Lelo.<\/p>\n
Several opposition leaders are jailed, in exile or facing criminal charges which opponents say are politically motivated.<\/p>\n
Tina Bokuchava, chairperson of the United National Movement, said the ruling party founded by Bidzina Ivanishvili, a billionaire who made his fortune in Russia, \u201cis essentially fulfilling every single strategic objective that Vladimir Putin had vis-\u00e0-vis Georgia.\u201d<\/p>\n
Despite the suspension of accession talks, Georgian Dream officials insist the country\u2019s European path remains unchanged.<\/p>\n
\u201cOur foreign policy is EU integration and NATO integration. Nothing has paused and nothing has changed in that regard,\u201d said ruling party lawmaker Mariam Lashkhi.<\/p>\n
She added that international pressure should not influence \u201cinternal social economic development policy.\u201d<\/p>\n
The EU enlargement report issued on Nov. 4 cited democratic backsliding by Georgian authorities. It said their \u201crepressive\u201d actions are \u201cfundamentally incompatible with EU values of democracy.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"TBILISI, Georgia — Crowds of demonstrators gathered in the Georgian capital of Tbilisi on Friday to mark 365…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":599915,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5174],"tags":[188302,3907,2000,299,5187,1699,4179,285,13216,263],"class_list":{"0":"post-599914","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-eu","8":"tag-188302","9":"tag-article","10":"tag-eu","11":"tag-europe","12":"tag-european","13":"tag-european-union","14":"tag-general-news","15":"tag-politics","16":"tag-protests-and-demonstrations","17":"tag-world-news"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115629290021863621","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/599914","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=599914"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/599914\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/599915"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=599914"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=599914"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=599914"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}