Tens of thousands of pro-European demonstrators gathered outside Georgia's parliament building on Tuesday night to celebrate the New Year, continuing months of protests against the government, Euractiv reports, UNN writes.
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The Black Sea state has been in the grip of an unprecedented constitutional crisis since the ruling Georgian Dream party, which many perceive as increasingly repressive, declared victory in October's parliamentary elections, which the pro-Western opposition denounced as fraudulent.
The government's decision on November 28 to suspend EU accession talks for years sparked daily mass protests that continue to this day.
On New Year's Eve, tens of thousands of people gathered outside the parliament building in central Tbilisi, waving EU and Georgian flags, the latest show of popular unity in the face of what critics call the government's authoritarian, pro-Russian leanings.
Many demonstrators brought food to share and set up a festive table for dozens of meters on Tbilisi's main avenue, decorated with Christmas lights, turning the 34th consecutive day of protests into a New Year's celebration.
"Tonight proves once again that the Georgian people will not allow the pro-Russian government to turn our country into a Russian-style despotism," said one of the demonstrators, 42-year-old Ilya Darsavelidze. - "Putin's puppets in Tbilisi are powerless against the will of our entire nation, and we will regain our rightful place in Europe.
Georgian President Salome Zurabishvili joined the demonstrators.
"2024 was the year of our unity, and 2025 will be the year of our victory," she told the crowd.
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Zurabishvili's mandate was due to expire on December 29, when her successor and supporter of the Georgian Dream, Mikheil Kavelashvili, was inaugurated as the next nominal president of Georgia after a disputed election process.
But Zurabishvili refused to step down, saying she remained the country's "only legitimate leader" until the October re-election.
Earlier, she declared the new parliament and government "illegitimate," and opposition parties refused to join the new legislature.
In the first 10 days of the protests, riot police used tear gas and water cannons to disperse demonstrators, some of whom threw fireworks and rocks.
The Interior Ministry reported more than 400 arrests, while the country's chief human rights commissioner, ombudsman Levan Yoseliani, and Amnesty International accused security forces of "torturing" detainees.
The reported police brutality has drawn growing international condemnation, and Washington and several European countries have imposed sanctions on Georgian Dream officials.
The foreign ministers of Germany, France and Poland said on Tuesday that the Georgian authorities should consider holding new elections as a way out of the political crisis in the country.
The Georgian Dream government has been accused of an authoritarian, pro-Russian turn that has undermined Georgia's aspirations to join the EU, a goal enshrined in the constitution and supported by 80% of the population.