The overnight protests show no sign of abating yet, despite temperatures dropping to near zero, and no sign of a solution yet.
There have been protests in Georgia before, but not like this, Lasha Dzebisashvili believes. Civil servants from all walks of life signed letters and petitions, and several ambassadors resigned, including Georgia’s ambassador to the US, in a clear blow to the ruling party.
This story will unfold on a long stretch of Rustaveli Avenue in front of the parliament in Tbilisi, but protests are also being felt in other cities, including Batumi and Poti on the Black Sea, Zugdidi in the northwest and Kutaisi. .
On Sunday evening, a large crowd of protesters formed outside the public broadcaster, demanding that the president be given air time rather than the usual pro-government pay.
This did not happen, and gradually the protesters, stopping traffic and chanting “Georgia, Georgia”, moved towards the center of the capital.
Niko Gvaramia and his colleagues in the opposition consider the obvious solution to be free and fair elections, but not within the framework of the existing election commission, but under the auspices of the EU and the USA: “If “Georgian Dream” is confident that it has won the elections, let’s hold new ones. those”.
This seems highly unlikely, as it would require an implicit admission that the original vote was unfair.
GD supporter and university lecturer Levan Gigineishvili believes that the US just needs to endure a new president: “I think a great way out of this will be when (Donald) Trump comes to power, and then everything will change.”
But January 20 is still a long way off, and this small state in the Caucasus will not be high on his agenda. And Georgia’s business sector, for example, will not be happy with a prolonged stalemate or the government’s continued damage to ties with the West.
