Georgia's prime minister threatens the opposition after the violent protests in Tbilisi: “Many have to expect convictions”
The protesters fire barricade and collide with law enforcement during an opposition rally, organized on the day of local elections, in the center of Tbilisi. Photo: Giorgi arjevanidze / AFP / Profimedia
Georgian Prime Minister Iraqli Kobakhidzé promised reprisals against the opposition after the electoral demonstrations of the previous day, marked in particular by an attempt by the protesters to enter the Presidential Palace, rejected by the Police, AFP reports, according to News.ro.
Tens of thousands of pro-European protesters gathered on Saturday night in the center of Tbilisi to protest against the government, on the day the local boycotted elections were held on part of the opposition and won by the Party in power, the Georgian dream.
The police used tear gas and water cannons to prevent the protesters from entering the presidential palace. There were also clashes between the police and the protesters, who raised barricades and set on fire.
PHOTO VIDEO Violent protests in Georgia. The protesters tried to enter the presidential palace in Tbilisi / law enforcement have responded with water cannons
“Several people have already been arrested, first of all the organizers of the attempt to overturn power,” Prime Minister Kobakhidzé told journalists on Sunday. “No one will remain unpunished (…) Many others have to expect convictions,” he added.
Previously, he had qualified the protests as “a coup attempt”, ensuring that they had been “planned by foreign intelligence”, without appointing them.
“This political force, a network of foreign agents, will be completely neutralized and will no longer be allowed to intervene in Georgian politics,” he continued on Sunday, referring to the main opposition party, the united national movement (MNU) of the former president MiHeil Saakaşvili.
On Saturday, the Minister of Interior said he opened an investigation for “calls to the violent overturn of the constitutional order and the authority of the state” and that he arrested five leaders of the protests, who risk up to nine years in prison.
The Georgian dream, in power since 2012, is accused of its critics of authoritarian skids and the intention to give up the country's ambitions to join the EU to approach Moscow.
Power denies and accuses, in turn, the opposition of trying to take power by force and the West of wishes to use this former Soviet Republic of Caucasus to open a second front against Moscow.
According to the electoral commission, the Georgian dream obtained the majority in all the municipalities participating in the Saturday elections, which were boycotted by several opposition parties.
