Thrusting Kavelashvili — who has no larger eduction and is anti-Western regardless of his soccer carreer there — into the presidency “was a farce,” Lithuanian MEP Rasa Juknevičienė mentioned on X. She visited Georgia this Thursday with a delegation from the European Parliament. “Just like in Russia, Belarus, and different autocracies.”
Local media report that demonstrators stood outdoors the parliament, voicing their protest that the same old public vote, final held in 2018, was changed by the electoral school technique and that Georgian Dream’s dominance within the parliament was based mostly on unfair parliamentary elections in late October.
Georgia has been experiencing political upheaval for months, together with when Georgian Dream of Prime Minister Irakli Kobakhidze received the contested elections. Zourabichvili known as the election “fraudulent.”
The authorities has since pulled the nation out of the accession course of to the European Union, inflicting huge demonstrations in Tbilisi and different cities. Demonstrators and activists have skilled violence, arbitrary arrests and different intimidation ways.
“We urge Georgian Dream to de-escalate and put an finish to this atmosphere that comes with extreme prices for the Georgian individuals,” the EU mentioned on Tuesday, calling for respect of the needs of the Georgian individuals to grow to be members of the bloc. Ukraine and several other EU international locations put sanctions on the Georgian authorities this month.
Kobakhidze claimed on Saturday his authorities is “able to do something to make Georgia a member” of the EU.
Georgian Dream additionally launched a Russia-style overseas brokers regulation which sparked protests earlier in 2024 and sharp rebukes from Zourabichvili.