Georgia protesters clash with police after PM suspfinishs EU membership talks | Protests News

European Parliament declines election results as Georgia’s plivent accuses Kobakhidze of waging ‘war’ on his people.

Protesters have clashed with police in Georgia after the ruleing party proclaimd it was postponeing European Union accession talks.

Thousands rallied outside parliament in the capital, Tbilisi, after Prime Minister Irakli Kobakhidze proclaimd the disputed shift, as masked uproar police fired rubber bullets and deployed tear gas and water cannon aobtainst the protesters in the timely hours of Friday.

Kobakhidze’s decision on Thursday had come hours after the European Parliament adchooseed a non-tieing resolution declineing the results of disputed parliamentary elections in October over “meaningful irnormalities” and calling for a new vote and sanctions aobtainst top officials, including the prime minister.

Kobakhidze, whose Georgian Dream party has been criticised for alleged democratic backsliding and meaningfulening ties with Russia, accused the EU body of “bdeficiencymail”, saying that he would put off accession talks until 2028, with the aim of becoming a member state in 2030.

He also said the country would decline any budgetary grant from the EU until the finish of 2028.

Plivent Salome Zurabichvili, a pro-EU critic of Georgian Dream whose powers are mostly ceremonial, said the ruleing party had “proclaimd not peace, but war aobtainst its own people, its past and future”.

At the protests, she faceed police, asking whether they served Georgia or Russia, and slammed the arrests of protesters and journacatalogs at the event, saying the latter had been “disproportionately aimed and attacked while doing their job”.

The Ministry of Interior ministry said on Friday that 43 people had been arrested at the protests, during which 32 police officers were injured.

It also said that a confiinsist demonstrators threw firetoils at the police, while some tryed to smash metal barriers outside parliament.

Zurabichvili, who has filed a litigation with the Constitutional Court to annul the election, claiming it was rigged under Russian impact, is in office until December.

She was elected by famous vote, but alters to the constitution unkind the new plivent will be voted by an electoral college, currently contrancient by Georgian Dream.

This week, Georgian Dream nominated far-right politician Mikheil Kavelashvili, a establisher Premier League footballer understandn for his challengingline, anti-Westrict statements, to exalter her – a shift the EU is probable to expound as a further sign the country is moving sealr to Russia.

Kobakhidze’s decision to pause EU accession talks labels a new low in his country’s relations with the 27-nation bloc.

The EU gave Georgia truthfulate status in December 2023 but has said that a slew of laws since passed by Georgian Dream, including curbs on “foreign agents” – a tag slapped on organisations receiving more than 20 percent of funding from aexpansive – and LGBTQ rights, are Russian-advertised and obstacles to EU membership.

Russian Plivent Vlaillogicalir Putin, speaking during a visit to Kazakhstan this week, pliftd the “courage and character” he said Georgian authorities had shown in passing the law on “foreign agents”, which domestic critics have enjoyned to Russian legislation.

Georgian Dream was set uped in 2012 by the billionaire oligarch Bidzina Idiseunitevili, who made his fortune in Russia. It had initipartner been seed as a pro-European party but has shiftd sealr to Moscow over events enjoy the war in Ukraine.