The Georgian Prime Minister, Iraqli Kobakhidzé, promised reprisals against the opposition on Sunday, October 5, after a demonstration the previous day, marked by an attempt by Unduction in the Palace of the Presidency, pressed by the Police.
Tens of thousands of Proeuropean Georgians had gathered in the center of Tbilisi to protest against the Government, until midnight on Saturday, the day the local elections took place, boycotted by several opposition matches.
“No one will remain unpunished”
According to the Electoral Commission, the ruling party, the Georgian dream, obtained the majority in all municipalities competing at the end of this first evidence for this political training from the legislative elections of October 2024, which officially won, but whose result is disputed by its opponents.
Hundreds of people demonstrated in front of Parliament on Sunday night, blocking traffic on the main avenue of the capital.
“Yesterday we were numerous today, we are less, but we will end up winning and this illegitimate government will be overthrown,” said NATO Tsomaïa, 23.
The previous day, the police had used tear gas and water cannons to prevent protesters from entering the presidency. The fights had also been carried out between the police and the protesters, who had erected barricades and burned.
“Several people have already been arrested, in the first place, the organizers of the attempted reversion” of power, the head of government said on Sunday. “Nobody will remain unpunished (…), many others have to wait for convictions,” he added.
The Iraqi Kobakhidzé had previously described the demonstration on Saturday as a “coup d’etat attempt”, ensuring that it had been “planned by foreign intelligence services,” without appointing them.
A renowned opera singer arrested
“This political force, a network of abroad agents, will be completely neutralized and will no longer be authorized to intervene in Georgian politics,” he warned, evoking the main opposition party, the Uni National Movement (MNU) of former imprisoned president Mikhail Saakachvili.
The Interior Ministry said on Saturday that there was an investigation for “calls to violently overthrow the constitutional order and authority of the State” and have arrested five leaders of the protest movement, which extends up to nine years in prison.
Among the arrested people was the opera singer and the world -renowned militant Paata Burchuladze, who had during the demonstration on Saturday I read, under Thunder applause, a statement in which the government was qualified as “illegitimate.”
The television channel that supports Pirveli’s opposition revealed that this 70 -year -old man had been admitted to the intensive care of a Tbilissi hospital after a heart attack.
On Sunday night, the State Security Service (SSS) said he had discovered in a forest near the capital an important cache of firearms, ammunition and explosives destined to commit “subversive acts” during local elections, as well as to take the presidential palace.
According to the SSS, a Georgian obtained this material on the investigation of one of his compatriots fighting together with the Ukrainian forces.
Authoritarian drift associations
According to the Electoral Commission, the Georgian dream won the majority in all municipalities in the race during Saturday’s elections, which was boycotted by several opposition matches.
It was a first evidence for this political party from the legislative elections in October 2024, which officially won, but whose result is challenged by the opposition.
Mikhail Saakachvili, which is serving a prison sentence of 12 and a half years for the abuse of power, had asked that their supporters demonstrated what he described as a “last chance” to save Georgian democracy.
After the legislative elections of 2024, support for the opposition had organized demonstrations for months, some of which had been repressed by the police. The authorities had made dozens of arrests, reinforced repressive legislation and increased their pressure on independent media.
The Georgian dream, in power since 2012, is accused of its authoritarian detractors of drift and wanting to abandon the ambitions of Georgia, a former Soviet Republic of the Caucasus, of entering the European Union in favor of an approach with Moscow.
In particular, he has taken anti-LGBT measures and against “foreigners’ agents” punished by the EU, who urged the Georgians on Sunday to “refrain from any violence.”
“A constructive and inclusive dialogue that involves all political actors and civil society is essential,” he insisted on his press release, the head of the Kaja Kallas European Union and the commissioner responsible for the expansion of EU Marta Kos.
Local authorities for their part accuse Westerners of seeking to open a second front against Russia in Georgia.
Source: BFM TV
