Reuters
[Source: Reuters]
Protesters and police skirmished in Georgia’s capital for a fourth straight night on Sunday and there were signs that opposition was spreading across the country to the government’s decision to suspend talks on joining the European Union.
The country of 3.7 million people has seen months of rising tension between the ruling Georgian Dream party and opponents who accuse it of pursuing increasingly authoritarian, anti-Western and pro-Russian policies.
The crisis has deepened since Thursday’s announcement that the government would freeze EU talks for four years, with thousands of pro-EU demonstrators facing off against police armed with tear gas and water cannon.
Protesters gathered again in Tbilisi on Sunday night on central Rustaveli Avenue, tossing fireworks at police, who responded with volleys of water cannon.
Georgia’s pro-Western President Salome Zourabichvili called for pressure to be brought on the Constitutional Court to annul elections last month won by Georgian Dream. Both the opposition and Zourabichvili say the poll was rigged.
Beyond the capital, Georgian news agency Interpress said demonstrators had blocked an access road into the country’s main commercial port in the Black Sea city of Poti.
Georgian media reported protests in at least eight cities and towns. Opposition TV channel Formula showed footage of people in Khashuri, a town of 20,000 in central Georgia, throwing eggs at the local Georgian Dream office and tearing down the party’s flag.
The EU and the United States are alarmed by what they see as Georgia’s shift away from a pro-Western path and back towards Russia’s orbit. Georgian Dream says it is acting to defend the country’s sovereignty against outside interference.
