Mass street protests have gripped Georgia since Nov 28, when the ruling Georgian Dream party’s increasingly authoritarian government said it will not seek the opening of EU accession talks until 2028.
The protest came a day before a controversial inauguration of Georgian Dream loyalist Mikheil Kavelashvili as the county’s new president, after his election was declared “illegitimate” by the current leader Salome Zurabishvili and the pro-Western opposition.
On Saturday afternoon, thousands of demonstrators, waving Georgian and EU flags, lined the Mtkvari River embankment and several bridges in the capital, Tbilisi, forming a 1km-long human chain, an AFP reporter saw.
“I Want to Hold Your Hand,” a hit song by the English rock band the Beatles, echoed from speakers mounted on a car as it drove along the human chain.
Zurabishvili – at loggerheads with the ruling party – has joined the demonstrators at Tbilisi’s Dry Bridge.
Similar rallies were held in cities across Georgia, local media reported.
On the Metekhi Bridge, in the historic district of the city, protesters displayed a banner reading “Freedom for political prisoners.”
The interior ministry reported more than 400 arrests, while the country’s top human rights official, ombudsman Levan Ioseliani and Amnesty International have accused security forces of “torturing” those detained.
The reported police brutality has drawn growing international condemnation, with Washington and several European countries imposing visa bans on Georgian Dream officials.
On Friday, the US imposed sanctions on Georgia’s former prime minister and the honorary chairman of Georgian Dream, Bidzina Ivanishvili, saying he undermined the country’s democratic future for Russia’s benefit.
Oligarch Ivanishvili, Georgia’s richest man, is widely regarded as the de facto leader of Georgia, despite holding no official position.
The EU-candidate Black Sea nation’s government faces accusations of an authoritarian, pro-Russian shift that has undermined Georgia’s EU bid, a goal enshrined in the constitution and supported by 80% of the population.