As Georgians Surpass 100 Days of Protesting, Demands for New Elections and the Release of Political Prisoners Remain Strong
3/9/2025
By: Daniel Miller
It’s been over 100 days since Georgian Prime Minister Irakli Kobakhidze announced that he would be suspending negotiations of economically integrating with the European Union (EU) for another four years, violating a key campaign promise that was supported by 85% of the population. The ruling Georgian Dream party (GD) was already highly unpopular before the announcement, as frequent protests had erupted after they successfully rigged the parliamentary election a month earlier, in late October. The results of the election have still gone unrecognized as the international community continues urging GD to hold a new round of elections, one of the key demands of the protesters. Along with that, they are also demanding the reinstatement of pro-EU foreign policy, investigations into the hundreds of human rights violations that have occurred during brutally violent arrests of protesters, and the release of the hundreds of political prisoners held across the country.
Since the country gained independence after the fall of the Soviet Union, Georgia has made slow progress by way of democratic reforms, sometimes going back one step after taking two forward. Founded and still currently financed by billionaire oligarch Bidzina Ivanishvili, who briefly served as Prime Minister for thirteen months from 2021 to 2013, the party won with a coalition of other pro-Western parties but has since slowly dismantled the country’s burgeoning democracy through judicial and institutional capture, suppression of independent media and intimidation of journalists, crackdowns on protesters and dissenters, and manipulation of elections to maintain a slim majority.
While the Ministry of Internal Affairs (MIA) is in charge of the police and special forces units, the president is responsible for signing laws passed by parliament. Salome Zourabichvili, who strongly aligns with the West and is still viewed as the country’s legitimate president, was replaced by party loyalist Mikheil Kavelashvili after Zourabichvili’s term officially ended on December 29, 2024. Kavelashvili was appointed by a parliamentary-style electoral college system instead of through direct elections, a first for the country and another example of democratic backsliding.
Since Kavelashvili was appointed, he has signed into law several repressive pieces of legislation mostly targeting protesters and dissenters. So far, the bills passed have
Increased the maximum detention period from 15 to 60 days
Prohibited indoor protests without the building owner’s consent, and blocking highways, bridges, and other avenues of public transport
Criminalized verbal insults against government officials or public servants, punishable by up to three years of imprisonment
Reclassified resisting police officers as a serious crime and increased the penalty to six years imprisonment
Enforced stricter laws targeting media outlets and non-governmental organizations (NGOs)
Ever since the police and special forces mercilessly beat and detained over 450 protesters, journalists, activists, and opposition leaders within the first ten days of protests, the MIA has largely backed off from its violent actions, likely to avoid more international backlash. During that period, most of those who were forced to endure the beatings reported being knocked unconscious multiple times along with suffering facial fractures, ruptured organs, and subjected to various forms of torture.
With the illegal elimination of USAID by the Trump Administration, the media landscape in Georgia is in grave danger of only serving the interests of the ruling party. While many US flags were visible at the protests, strong hopes of Trump coming to democracy’s defense have disappeared since abandoning his European allies and siding with his favorite dictator. The only hope of restoring Georgian democracy would be for British Foreign Minister David Lammy to support Member of Parliament (MP) James MacCleary’s Early Day Motion to unilaterally impose crippling sanctions on Ivanishvili’s financial empire that stretches across Britain and its territories. Doing so would effectively eliminate all funding for GD, forcing the party to collapse as its members are viewed as illegitimate in the eyes of the public.
