Georgian nightmare without end?

For several years, Georgia has taken an anti-liberal, anti-Western turn under the government of the ‘Georgian Dream’. This was most recently reflected in the adoption of laws against independent non-governmental organisations and against LGBT communities, following the Russian model. The parliamentary elections on 26 October 2024 were seen as the last chance to prevent the country from sliding into authoritarianism. However, according to the official results, the ruling Georgian Dream party has now won the elections with 54 percent of the vote and secured a hold on power for itself and its ‘honorary chairman’ Bidzina Ivanishvili, the most powerful and richest man in the country. But local and international election observers have doubts aboutthe result. 

Georgian President Salome Zurabishvili, who is relatively powerless politically, has spoken of a ‘stolen election’ and a ‘Russian fraud scheme’ and called on Georgia's international partners not to recognise the election and the new Georgian Dream government formed after it. However, it is completely unclear how the political opposition and democratic civil society could take action against the government other than in the form of mass protests, as there is no real separation of powers in the country - the electoral commission and judiciary are under the political control of the government.

Is there now a threat of open repression of democracy, civil society and freedom of expression in Georgia? What options are there to defend oneself against the rising authoritarianism?How great is Russia's influence on developments in Georgia? Has the country finally become ‘pro-Russian’?What position should the EU take towards a government that is officially seeking to join the EU, but is authoritarian at home? And how credible can the EU actually act in view of its dealings with other, similarly authoritarian governments?

We discuss these and other questions with:

• Tamta Mikeladze, Human rights activist and co-director of the Social Justice Centre in Tbilisi, Georgia
• Sergey Lagodinsky, Deputy Chairman of the Greens/European Free Alliance Group in the European Parliament (online)
• Giorgi Chinchaladze, Co-founder of the Georgian Centre Abroad; a new diaspora organisation of young Georgians, Berlin

Moderator: Walter Kaufmann, Head of Division Eastern and South Eastern Europe, Heinrich Böll Foundation Berlin

Information: 
Irina Ghulinyan-Gerz
Department for Eastern and South Eastern Europe
E irina.ghulinyan-gerz@boell.de

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