Georgians take to the streets of Tbilisi to protest against “electoral fraud” that is taking them away from the European dream

Georgia is plunge into a political crisis this could move the country away from the European dream. This Monday afternoon, thousands of Georgians gathered in front of the Parliament building in Tbilisi (the capital), to protest against the victory of the ruling party, the Georgian pro-Russian dreamin Saturday’s elections. Results contested by the opposition, but not only: also by NATO and the European Union.

On Sunday, the Georgian president, Salomé Zourabichvilirejected the results proposed by the Central Electoral Commission which gave victory, with 54% of the votes, to the party which has ruled the country for 12 years. “We have been witnesses and victims of a Russian special operation“, said the head of state, whose functions are practically ceremonial. The accusation was shared by the leaders of the opposition – four political parties united in the cause of Georgia’s rapprochement with the West, but divided on the formula -, who repeated the idea that there had been a “total fraud”, a “theft of votes” and a “institutional coup”.

Discontent and indignation spread in the streets after Zourabichvili – in conflict for months with the Executive for its autocratic and anti-Western drift – invited citizens to rise up against “illegitimate results” in his first speech. During the demonstrations, which reportedly brought together 15,000 people, the head of state declared, among cries of support, that “They stole our future”. However, he promised that he would be alongside the Georgians “to the end on the road to Europe”.

Likewise, the president announced that she had spoken about the situation with six presidents of other countries and that “none recognized the elections” in which the official party won.

The truth is that on election day, several local and international observation organizations – including the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) – denounced a series of violations that could have affected the outcome, such as ballot manipulation or voter intimidation. There were indeed violent episodes in several voting centers.

None of the observers directly pointed the finger at electoral fraud, but “democratic regression” of the country. NATO, for its part, echoed the doubts weighing on the legislative elections and underlined the “lack of public confidence” in the result. The European Union, on the other hand, was more forceful and denounced a Russian disinformation campaign and anti-European rhetoric. “unprecedented”. Thus, both the Atlantic Alliance and Brussels have requested that possible irregularities be investigated.

Although this opinion is widely held, the Hungarian Prime Minister, Viktor Orbancompletely distanced himself from the block. Shortly after the results were announced, the president recognized Sueño Georgiano’s victory. Not content with this, on Monday he demonstrated his support for the pro-Kremlin party with a visit to Tbilisi, taking advantage of the fact that his country holds the current presidency of the Council of the EU.

For its part, the Kremlin accused external forces – referring to the US and EU – of trying destabilize the situation in the Caucasian nation by questioning the cleanliness of the elections, reports Efe.

Adhesion, jelly

Surveys indicate that 80% of the Georgian population is in favor of entry into the European Union. However, the Georgian Dream, which came to power in 2012, became increasingly authoritarian and did everything to stop European progress with increasingly conservative policies aligned with those of the Kremlin. Perhaps the clearest case is the adoption of a law on foreign agents similar to Russia’s, but also regulations against foreign agents. “LGBT propaganda”.

It is precisely because of these policies which move away from the values ​​of the bloc that Brussels froze the membership process this summer of Georgia, which obtained candidate country status in December last year.