2024-05-01 15:43:25
Pro-European demonstrations are intensifying in Georgia, as Parliament prepares to vote on a Russian-inspired law on “foreign agents”.
Thousands of Georgians chanting pro-European slogans have taken to the streets of Tbilisi in recent days to demonstrate once morest a bill on “foreign agents”, carried by a government increasingly close to Moscow. On Wednesday, following a night of demonstrations violently repressed by the police, around sixty people were arrested. In Parliament, where the measure was discussed, deputies from the majority and the opposition came to blows.
This crisis, revealing a deep divide in Georgian society, is closely followed in Brussels, where the head of EU diplomacy, Josep Borrell, condemned the repression. The demonstrations are also widely observed in Moscow, where the Kremlin, keen to reintegrate Georgia into its fold, supports the controversial bill.
The ruling party, Georgian Dream, put back on the table on April 9 a text modeled on Russian legislation. This bill aims to declare as an “agent working for the benefit of an external power” NGOs and media which receive more than 20% of their funding from abroad.
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“Georgia is a candidate country for the EU, I call on its authorities to guarantee the right to peaceful assembly.”
A permanent fracture
The text is identical to a first draft introduced in April 2023, then withdrawn following demonstrations. The difference this time is that Georgian Dream holds the majority and many more Georgians rise up once morest the regime.
The billionaire Bidzina Ivanishvili, founder of this party and de facto leader of the country for twelve years, has been hoping for its adoption by Parliament in mid-May. The opposition claims that this measure will weaken civil society and freedom of expression, as is the case in Russia. The Georgian president, Salomé Zourabichvili, is also opposed to this law, which she cannot however block.
During the latest protests, Georgian police used water cannons, tear gas and rubber bullets once morest the protesters. “Georgia is a candidate country for the EU, I call on its authorities to guarantee the right to peaceful assembly“, protested Josep Borrell on X.
These events are the sign ofa deep and permanent divide within the population. “Young people are more European, but also more Atlanticist and more attached to public freedoms than are the older generations, more concerned with maintaining good relations with Russia,” explains, in an analysis, Jean de Gliniasty, director of research at IRIS.$
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The European dream
Georgia’s European ambition is well anchored and ancient, membership of the EU being enshrined in its Constitution. According to polls, 80% of Georgians are in favor.
After the Russian invasion of Ukraine, Georgia submit your application urgently, like kyiv and Chisinau. But he was recognized as a candidate in December 2023, while the EU had granted it immediately to the two neighboring countries. The scale of the reforms to be carried out would explain this delay.
The crackdown by the authorities and the controversial bill might slow down the membership processthe question of the rule of law being central in the examination of his candidacy.
“The country is geographically isolated, without borders with the EU. Have we thought carefully regarding this before recognizing its candidate status?”
The Russian temptation
Russia, which has occupied South Ossetia and Abkhazia, two Georgian regions, since 2008, is fiercely opposed to Georgia’s rapprochement with the West. To avoid it, it is waging a hybrid war, made up of disinformation and destabilization operations.
Georgian Dream, originally, campaigned for integration into the EU and NATO. Since 2021, the party, infiltrated at its summit by supporters of Moscowhas undertaken a pro-Russian turn, without the government turning away, for the moment, from membership.
The current crisis is being exploited by the Kremlin, whose official philosopher, Alexander Dugindeclared that with this bill, “Georgia is on the right track“. According to some analysts, Vladimir Putin might use the destabilization of the Tbilisi regime as a pretext to intervene in Georgia without being invited, as he did in Ukraine.
Georgia is at a crossroads. “The country is geographically isolated, without borders with the EU. Have we thought regarding this carefully before recognizing its candidate status?” asks Sven Biscop, director at the Royal Egmont Institute.
“If the Russians wanted to intervene militarily, it would be easy, given the presence of troops in South Ossetia and Abkhazia, although I don’t think they have the means to fight another large-scale war,” he continued. he. “In this case, Europe will have to intervene to support Georgiawhich will be difficult without a common border.”
The summary
- Since the filing on April 9 ofa bill in the Georgian Parliament on “foreign agents”, of Russian inspiration, tens of thousands of pro-European demonstrators descend on the capital Tbilisi. The EU has condemned the increasingly violent crackdown.
- This law, contrary to fundamental European principles, might slow down Georgia’s EU accession process.
- Russia is following this crisis very closely, in the hope of bring back, willingly or by force, Georgia into its fold.
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