On Saturday night, Georgian police cracked down on anti-government demonstrators who attempted to storm the presidential palace, as tens of thousands took to the streets after calls by opposition groups for a peaceful coup to oust the ruling party.
It came after local elections on Oct. 4 which took place in all 64 municipalities across the country to elect municipal councils and city mayors.
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Usually inconsequential, the elections were regarded by many as the first meaningful electoral test for Georgian Dream, the populist party which claimed victory in elections marred by allegations of vote-rigging last year.
The ballot was boycotted by eight opposition groups in protest of what has been regarded as a wholesale crackdown on civil society, independent media and political opposition by the ruling party amid hundreds of days of consecutive demonstrations.
After a spate of arrests of almost all major opposition chiefs over the past several months, including six jailed in one week in June alone, nine opposition figures remain in custody, and dozens of political activists and protesters have been hounded with criminal prosecutions.
With 73 percent of precincts counted, the central election commission announced on Saturday night that Georgian Dream had secured municipal council victories in every district, winning over 80 percent of the vote.
At a measly 41%, turnout was the lowest in Georgia’s post-independence history, according to Batumelebi.
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In an address following the elections, billionaire oligarch and Georgian Dream founder Bidzina Ivanishvili, widely viewed as an éminence grise to successive governments, declared victory in a cryptic speech, saying: “This is what Georgia deserves. This is what our history deserves. What our genes deserve. We paid respect to our ancestors.”
“Our homeland has been usurped”
Some opposition figures had earmarked the date for months for a “peaceful revolution,” asking fellow citizens to form a “national assembly” to enable a peaceful transfer of power from the regime to its pro-Western opposition.
To kick off the protests, opera singer Paata Burchuladze, one of the organisers, instructed the crowd to “take back power into the hands of the people” by arresting six senior Georgian Dream officials, including Prime Minister Irakli Kobakhidze and Ivanishvili.
“We, the citizens of Georgia, gathered here at the National Assembly, declare that our homeland has been usurped… Bidzina Ivanishvili’s informal rule has become a genuine threat to Georgia’s sovereignty and to every citizen,” he said in the bold address.
Burchuladze said that the government had “lost its constitutional legitimacy” and declared a “transitional period” to transfer power and restore democratic institutions.
Water cannons, pepper spray and tear gas
After the speech, protesters are said to have surged to Orbeliani Palace, the presidential residence on Atoneli Street, tearing down the gates to storm the courtyard at around 19:00 local time before being repelled by riot police.
Police are said to have used water cannons, pepper spray and tear gas to keep the crowds at bay. Protesters responded by building barricades and setting fires.
When the clashes outside the palace simmered down, many moved back to Rustaveli Avenue, the city’s central artery where Georgia’s Parliament is located and where protests have become a mainstay over the past few years.
Kobakhidze vowed to “prosecute” all protesters involved in the “violent act” at the palace, saying: “They had announced the overthrow of the constitutional order and its violent replacement and took concrete steps toward that.”
He also accused EU officials of backing what he said was an attempted coup, urging the bloc’s ambassador to speak out against protesters’ actions.
“Staged by the regime”
Ousted President Salome Zourabichvili, who has led several rounds of protests against Georgian Dream, also condemned the unrest, accusing state actors of staging the incursion to tarnish the movement.
“This mockery of taking over the presidential palace can only be staged by the regime to discredit the 310 days peaceful protest of the Georgian people,” she wrote on X. “As the legitimate President I formally reject this and continue standing with my people peacefully until we win new elections.”
At a later press conference, Kobakhidze said that the police expected to arrest more than 30 people in connection with the protests, claiming that 15 police officers had been hospitalized after sustaining injuries from protesters.
The Ministry of Internal Affairs announced that investigations had been launched under four articles, including attempted overthrow of the constitutional order and group violence.
Still later, heavily armed Georgian police stormed the hospital where Burchuladze was being treated, reportedly after being sprayed with pepper spray, in an apparent move to arrest him.
The pro-opposition Pirveli TV station said that police also arrested several other protest leaders, including the United National Movement’s Irakli Nadiradze and former prosecutor-general Murtaz Zodelava.
Moscow or the West?
Once hailed as one of the most pro-Western states to rise from the collapse of the Soviet Union, Georgia’s relationship with the West sharply deteriorated since the full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
Once seen as a liberal alternative to incumbent Mikheil Saakashvili, Georgian Dream followed an increasingly Moscow-aligned path following the invasion.
It adopted copycat Kremlin-style laws and pursued far-right policies, alongside railing against the Western “deep state,” which it has repeatedly said is trying to embroil Georgia in the Russia-Ukraine conflict.
After the government suspended European Union accession talks following the October 2024 election, abruptly stalling a cherished and decades-old national aspiration, mass protests were sparked that have endured ever since.
In July, Brussels set an end-of-August deadline for Tbilisi to reverse its democratic backsliding, threatening to suspend visa-free travel for Georgians if the ruling party did not comply.
Kobakhidze scoffed at the threat, saying that visa-free travel is not “existential” for his country and adding that he doubts it will really be suspended.
