The anti-EU ruling Georgian Dream party says it will not step down next month after the parliament was elected in a rigged election.
Georgian President Salome Zourabichvili has said she will not step down after her term ends because parliament is “wild”, while the prime minister warned of “revolution” amid anti-European Union protests.
Thousands of Georgians protested on Saturday for the third night following Prime Minister Irakli Kobakhidze’s announcement of a government. will stop EU negotiations.
The goal of joining 27 members is now established in the constitution of Georgia, but the prime minister – who was present. building closer ties with Russia – suspended the negotiations for four years and accused Brussels of “blackmail”.
Speaking on Saturday, Zourabichvili, an anti-EU member of the ruling Georgian Dream party, said parliament had no right to choose a successor when his term ends in December, and that he should remain in office.
The president, whose power is traditional, says that the election of 26 October, won by Georgian Dream with 54 percent of the vote. he was a hypocrite and thus the elected parliament is illegitimate.
“There is no official parliament, so an unofficial parliament cannot elect a new president. “Therefore, no inauguration will take place, and my position will continue until a legitimately elected parliament is established,” he said.
Georgia Election Commission earlier this month he confirmed that the ruling party is the winnerbut watchdogs and politicians in the EU and the United States have also said that investigations should look into possible fraud.
The Interior Ministry said on Saturday it had arrested 107 people in the capital Tbilisi overnight during protests that saw some protesters erect barricades and beat riot police, who used rockets and tear gas.
The riots came as Prime Minister Kobakhidze criticized the government’s decision to suspend EU talks to prepare for protests, similar to the Maidan protests in Ukraine in 2014, which ousted a pro-Russian president.
“In Georgia, the events of the Maidan cannot happen. Georgia is a country, and the government will not allow this,” Kobakhidze told local media.
The US State Department said on Saturday it was suspending its cooperation with Georgia following the Georgian Dream party’s decision to suspend EU membership.
“We condemn the people of Georgia who are being misused to oppose their constitution – the EU and security in the Kremlin,” State Department spokesman Matthew Miller wrote on X.
“Therefore we have suspended our strategic partnership with Georgia.”
Georgia gained independence from neighboring Russia in 1991 after the fall of the Soviet Union, and the two countries have had no relations since a brief 2008 war over the Moscow-backed territories of South Ossetia and Abkhazia.
But efforts by the Georgian Dream party to build stronger ties with Russia have already stalled the country’s bid to join the EU.
Bloc said that laws against “foreign sponsors” and LGBTQ rights are among the main reasons that prevent sales, as they restrict human rights and are enforced by law in Russia.
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