Police detain over 100 in Tbilisi as violent protests at suspension of EU talks continue

Police in the Georgian capital Tbilisi have detained 107 people after a second successive night of violent protests against the government’s decision to suspend EU accession, the Interior Ministry said on Saturday.

The protest, which began outside the parliament building on Friday night, drew a larger crowd than a similar protest on Thursday nights, according to Echo of the Caucasus, Radio Free Europe’s Georgian outlet.

At one point protesters broke into the offices of the ruling Georgian Dream party, smashing windows, tearing down the party flag and pelting the building with eggs, according to Georgian online news platform Tabula.

The Interior Ministry accused the crowd of erecting barricades, damaging city and private property, and of throwing glass bottles, stones, metal objects and fireworks at the police.

After ordering protesters to leave the area, police used tear gas, pepper spray and water cannons to disperse the crowd. The ministry said that 107 protesters had been detained for disobeying police orders and petty hooliganism, and that 10 law enforcement officers had been injured as a result of the crowd’s “illegal and violent actions”.

Prime Minister Irakli Kobakhidze announced on Thursday that Georgia would suspend talks on the country’s future EU membership and refuse budgetary grants from the bloc until the end of 2028, when it would be “adequately economically prepared to open negotiations for accession to the European Union in 2030”.

“We must clearly show the relevant European politicians and bureaucrats, who are completely devoid of European values, that they should not speak to Georgia with blackmail and insults, but with dignity”, Kobakhidze said.

The move came in response to a European Parliament resolution that criticised Georgia’s parliamentary elections in October as “neither free nor fair” and accused Georgian Dream of being responsible for the country’s “continued democratic backsliding”.

Georgian President Salome Zourabichvili, who joined the protest on Thursday evening, called Georgian Dream’s decision to suspend EU accession talks the culmination of a “constitutional coup unfolding for weeks” and said that the government had declared “war” on its people by taking Georgia “from Europe towards Russia”.