Protesters have clashed with police in Georgia after the governing party announced it was delaying European Union accession talks.
Thousands rallied outside parliament in the capital, Tbilisi, after Prime Minister Irakli Kobakhidze announced the controversial move, as masked riot police fired rubber bullets and deployed tear gas and water cannon against the protesters in the early hours of Friday.
Kobakhidze’s decision on Thursday had come hours after the European Parliament adopted a non-binding resolution rejecting the results of disputed parliamentary elections in October over “significant irregularities” and calling for a new vote and sanctions against top officials, including the prime minister.
Kobakhidze, whose Georgian Dream party has been criticised for alleged democratic backsliding and deepening ties with Russia, accused the EU body of “blackmail”, saying that he would put off accession talks until 2028, with the aim of becoming a member state in 2030.
He also said the country would refuse any budgetary grant from the EU until the end of 2028.
President Salome Zurabichvili, a pro-EU critic of Georgian Dream whose powers are mostly ceremonial, said the governing party had “declared not peace, but war against its own people, its past and future”.
At the protests, she confronted police, asking whether they served Georgia or Russia, and slammed the arrests of protesters and journalists at the event, saying the latter had been “disproportionately targeted and attacked while doing their job”.
The Ministry of Interior ministry said on Friday that 43 people had been arrested at the protests, during which 32 police officers were injured.
It also said that a few demonstrators threw fireworks at the police, while some attempted to smash metal barriers outside parliament.
Zurabichvili, who has filed a lawsuit with the Constitutional Court to annul the election, claiming it was rigged under Russian influence, is in office until December.
She was elected by popular vote, but changes to the constitution mean the new president will be voted by an electoral college, currently dominated by Georgian Dream.
This week, Georgian Dream nominated far-right politician Mikheil Kavelashvili, a former Premier League footballer known for his hardline, anti-Western statements, to replace her – a move the EU is likely to interpret as a further sign the country is moving closer to Russia.
Kobakhidze’s decision to pause EU accession talks marks a new low in his country’s relations with the 27-nation bloc.
The EU gave Georgia candidate status in December 2023 but has said that a slew of laws since passed by Georgian Dream, including curbs on “foreign agents” – a label slapped on organisations receiving more than 20 percent of funding from abroad – and LGBTQ rights, are Russian-inspired and obstacles to EU membership.
Russian President Vladimir Putin, speaking during a visit to Kazakhstan this week, praised the “courage and character” he said Georgian authorities had shown in passing the law on “foreign agents”, which domestic critics have likened to Russian legislation.
Georgian Dream was established in 2012 by the billionaire oligarch Bidzina Ivanishvili, who made his fortune in Russia. It had initially been perceived as a pro-European party but has moved closer to Moscow over events like the war in Ukraine.
The post Georgia protesters clash with police after PM suspends EU membership talks appeared first on Al Jazeera.
