The Western-friendly President Salomé Zourabichvili's appeal comes at a time when the police are cracking down hard on predominantly peaceful opposition protests in the country. She addresses a question to the EU Parliament members in Strasbourg on Wednesday:
If Europe cannot pressure a country with 3.7 million inhabitants, how can one expect to compete with the giants of the 2000s?
"Slow to react"
On Monday, the EU decided to pause visa-free travel for diplomats and top officials from Georgia, as a consequence of violence against demonstrators, primarily in the capital Tbilisi. According to Salomé Zourabichvili, it is not enough. She urges the EU to use its strength as Georgia's largest contributor.
Where Georgians have fought day and night, Europeans have been slow to wake up and slow to react, she says.
Over the past few weeks, tens of thousands of people have regularly protested against the election results in October, which they consider invalid and marred by fraud suspicions. According to the official election result, the ruling party Georgian Dream won 89 out of 150 seats in parliament. The party has been accused in recent years of increasingly acting as puppets for Russia.
The party has, among other things, frozen negotiations on EU membership and recently talked about banning the political opposition altogether.
Loyal party president
Just recently, the former football player Micheil Kavelasjvili was elected as the new president in a process controlled by the ruling party. He is, unlike the sitting President Salomé Zourabichvili, loyal to the ruling party and a fierce critic of all Western influence in Georgia.
According to the opposition, Zourabichvili is still the country's only legitimate and democratically elected leader. She has stated that she does not intend to leave her post when her mandate expires later in December.
The Georgian president's power is, however, mainly ceremonial.
According to the official result after the election in Georgia on October 26, the ruling party Georgian Dream won with nearly 54 percent of the votes.
The opposition received a total of around 38 percent, according to the election authority.
The result was immediately questioned by the opposition and the country's EU-friendly President Salomé Zourabichvili, who accused the government of a constitutional coup orchestrated by Russia.
Georgian Dream has been accused in recent years of increasingly turning its back on the EU and instead looking towards Moscow, among other things through a series of Russia-inspired laws. This despite the country being granted candidate status to the EU at the end of 2023 – and despite Russia controlling approximately one-fifth of Georgia since a six-day war in 2008.
When Prime Minister Irakli Kobachidze announced that all talks on EU membership would be frozen for four years – even though the talks had already been stopped on EU initiative – widespread demonstrations erupted. Hundreds of people have been arrested and many have been injured, including police officers.
