“Run, run, the revolution has begun!” A drama takes place in Georgia. “We don't want this government”
To a large extent unnoticed by public opinion, overshadowed by wars in the Gaza Strip and Ukraine, A drama takes place in Georgia. For almost a year, many Georgians have been protesting against the ruling party of the Georgian dream. This Saturday, local government elections were held in this small Caucasian state. In fact, ordinary political everyday life.
However, in Georgia, these elections were more important. Part of the opposition boycotted them because they consider them dishonest and even forged by the ruling party. Many international election observers did not appear on the spot. Local government elections First of all, they became an opportunity to express anger.
Talking to Georgians, it is often heard that this country at an accelerated pace is heading towards a state “similar to Belarus”. What is happening in the Caucasus? The situation is reported by the editor “Die Welt”.
Around 7pm on Saturday, the situation in Tbilisi is escalating. Under the Presidential Palace in the capital of Georgia, demonstrators loudly jerk the gate, shouting with rage at hard -armed policemen behind it. Part of the fence is destroyed, and the officers at the palace are blinded with green laser indicators. The video recording shows how one of the demonstrators is trying to break through the breach in the fence, copies of the policeman, and he does the same in response. The streets resounds in firecrackers, and one street is set on fire to the barricade.
Protesters smoke barricades during clashes with the police during the opposition rally on the day of local elections in the center of Tbilisi, October 4, 2025.Giorgi Arjevanidze / AFP / AFP
When a hundred policemen start rhythmically hitting his shields, the crowd begins to distract. The rest is done by water cannons and – judging by the balls found later – rubber bullets. Groups of men dressed in black sneak through the neighboring park, one of the demonstrators screams: “Run, run away, the revolution has begun!“And it disappears in the side street.
Anxieties have a long history. In the spring of 2023, the ruling Georgian dream tried to push through the so -called “Act on agents”, which would significantly hinder the work of non -governmental organizations and the media. Critics immediately recalled Russia, where the dictator Vladimir Putin in 2012 forced a similar law, and then used it to repress opponents. These types of laws are A classic tool in autocrat's arsenalwho want to transform you according to their intentions.
Under the pressure of the street, the Georgian government initially withdrew from the plan criticized as the “Russian law”. A year later, however, the act was adopted. In October 2024, the Georgian dream won parliamentary elections. The opposition and President Salome Zurabiszwili considered them forged. Still, there was peace in the country.
To Brussels or to Moscow?
However, when a few weeks later Prime Minister Iraqi Kobachiga – a lawyer who obtained a doctoral degree in Duesseldorf – announced a suspension of accession conversations from the EU by 2028, went too far. In no time there were mass protestsarrests, acts of violence, victims – and huge anger.
The country has long been struggling with the choice of: Brussels or Moscow? The course of the ruling party, founded at the end of 2011 by the extremely rich Bidzina Ivaniszwili, who once made a fortune in Russia seemed to be more and more heading towards Moscow. Both in terms of geopolitical and in contacts with citizens.
Continued article under video material
From suspending conversations with the EU in Georgia they are ongoing uninterrupted demonstrations. It is true that fewer people took part in the protests recently than at the beginning. It seemed that the impetus of protests weakened, as is often the case with mass movements, when the governments wait street anger.
However, in the country still boils. How hot the atmosphere around these choices and how brutal events can be, shows the story of Igor Narmania, chairman of the Youth Opposition Organization of the United National Movement.
He himself cannot tell this story this Saturday, because he is in the hospital with serious head injuries. In his place in the cafe in the center of Tbilisi appears Nikolos Chosroszwili, responsible in movement for foreign affairs. The 20-year-old-slim, with short hair, in glasses-falls on the sofa and begins to tell quickly.
“We were with a few friends on the way to a television recording,” he says, still clearly moved. – Then they came and without warning attacked us from behind. “They” are about ten paid thugs. Such people are usually associated with circular roads with the rulers in the country.
Chosroszwili believes that the Friday attack might as well end in death. The video recording shows how a man strikes Narma with a blunt object in the head many times. “The doctors said that if there were two or three centimeters away, it would hit the artery,” he says. The attack without warning is a new stage of escalation. – They want to intimidate people to come to a demonstration – says Chosroszwili.
He is tired, he is afraid. Still, he wants to continue. He assumes that he will be arrested during Saturday protests. On the left forearm, he wrote the phone number of his lawyer with a pen.
“We don't want this government”
Part of the opposition significantly raised the bar before the demonstration. Paata Burczulaga, a well-known Georgian opera singer, who leads the group of activists “Rustustle's avenue”, named after the boulevard in front of the parliament, even announced “a change of power”: October 4 will be the “day of peaceful overthrow” of the government, the 70-year-old announced.
In the week preceding the elections and announced protests in Tbilisi, the expectation of something great would happen. However, almost no one has the courage to present a specific forecast – the situation is too uncertain.
Saturday is a warm, sunny autumn day. In the afternoon, demonstrators gather in front of the closed Parliament building at Rustustolo Avenue and at the nearby Wolności Square. Among them are families with children, but also masked young men, tensioning muscles in black T -shirts. Standing music resounds from the speakers, Georgian, American, Ukrainian and even single German flags are waved. The opposition policy of Burczulaga speaks in a loud voice and demands, among others, the arrest of government politicians.
Clashes between the police and the protesters who tried to get to the Presidential Palace in Tbilisi in Georgia, October 4, 2025.Davit Kachkiishvili / Anadol Agency / Anadol Agency via AFP / AFP
One of the demonstrators, an older man who presents himself as Devi, explains why he is here: “We don't want this government,” he says. – We want to be independent, especially from Russia – he adds. Georgia “always” was at war with Russia, since Moscow conquered this region at the beginning of the 19th century.
Critics say that through a Georgian dream Moscow controls Tbilisi Even over three decades after independence. This party uses the fear of war with Russia in Georgia. He claims that the indefinite “global war” wants to draw Georgia as the second front to the war in Ukraine.
– They will do everything not to lose power – even if it is associated with bloodshed – says Tinatin Erkvania, a professor of law and supporter of the party imprisoned former president Micheil Saakashvili. She is also afraid of Russian influence in the country, which are “contrary to Georgian traditions and values.” That is why she decided to take part in protests. As he emphasizes, “democracy, the rule of law – everything has been completely destroyed”, therefore he cannot “accept” the current government course.
From the outside, it is difficult to imagine that a country that is a popular place of rest, known for his red wine, pierogi chinkali and the joy of life, which has the status of a candidate to join the EU and in which, according to polls, 80 percent. people are in favor of accession – he could transform into an authoritarian state. However, the signs of this are more and more visible. This can be seen on the basis of very different events.
For a long time, the German ambassador has felt the effects of this situation. Peter Fischer, like other Western diplomats, was repeatedly attacked in words by party officers. Recently, it turned into insults on the street. After at the beginning of September, demonstrators were attacked by armed men, and some of them were wounded, the chairman of the Georgian parliament accused Fischer of responsibility for escalation.
Repression is intensifying
Fischer was to interfere in Georgian internal policy, criticizing the ruling party. He, in turn, described the allegations as “unfounded”. First, he was called by the Georgian Ministry of Foreign Affairs-for the first time in the history of German-Gruziński relations. Last week, the German Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Berlin called Georgian Chargé d'Affaires.
In addition There are reports of foreign journalistswhich is refused to enter the airport or applied high fines for alleged offenses when reporting protests. Meanwhile, independent domestic media are afraid of their future, for example because of court lawsuits and defamatory campaigns. Critical state officials are subjected to pressure or released.
Protesters smoke barricades during the opposition rally on the day of local elections in the center of Tbilisi on October 4, 2025.Giorgi Arjevanidze / AFP / AFP
In Georgia there is an increasingly stronger atmosphere of fear among people who do not share the government line. The arrests are common. Recently, they affected the leaders of opposition party or other prominent opponents of the government several times. According to media reports, Ivaniszwili's close associate was Giorgi Bachiaszwili, he was even kidnapped from the United Arab Emirates, where he stayed. After returning to Georgia, he was arrested. In July, he was wounded in prison, as he claims, as a result of beating by a prisoner.
In Tbilisi, however, there was no revolution on Saturday. The fact that the Georgian dream announced partially boycotted local elections with its definite victory almost escaped attention. According to official data, 21 policemen and six demonstrators were hospitalized.
The former president of Salome Zurabiszwili suspects that the attempt to storm the Presidential Palace was a provocation fed by the government. Prime Minister Kobachiga warns: – The state's answer will not be easy or gentle.
