Georgia will elect a new parliament on Saturday. While Georgians have repeatedly expressed clear support for the path towards EU accession in polls, the Georgian Dream party which has been in power since 2012 recently pushed through laws resembling those in Russia that restrict the rights of the opposition and civil society. The EU responded by putting the country's accession process, which began at the end of 2023, on hold.
At a crossroads
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This vote will determine the country's future, Novaya Gazeta (Russia) explains:
“The ruling Georgian Dream party is calling it a choice between war and peace. The opposition is talking about a choice between the 'Russian world' and the European path the country has pursued over the last decades. ... The Georgian Dream party - citing its own polls - claims that around 60 percent of the electorate is willing to vote for it, meaning it would gain a constitutional majority that would allow it to finally settle the issue of the opposition and continue to act as it sees fit. If that happens, many Georgians risk waking up in a different country on October 27.”
Ruling party sabotaging the country's EU accession
La Repubblica (Italy) complains:
“While in Moldova the population is still divided, here more than 80 percent of the 3.7 million citizens support the path of EU integration. ... Georgian Dream, the party that has been in government for 12 years, is doing everything it can to sabotage this path. Its founder and de facto leader Bidzina Ivanishvili, a billionaire who made his fortune in Russia, controls the judiciary and the press and has pushed through measures that restrict freedom such as the 'Russian law', which obliges media and NGOs that receive foreign funding to register as 'foreign agents', and also an anti-LGBT law. ... The protests of the citizens were not enough: at the beginning of July the EU had to suspend the accession process, which had only begun last December.”
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Brussels must increase support for democratic forces
El Mundo (Spain) calls for the EU to step up its efforts to counter Russia's interference:
“On Sunday Russia fought a new battle in its hybrid war against Europe. ... Its interference in the Republic of Moldova is the harbinger of equally dangerous interference in Saturday's parliamentary elections in Georgia. The threat Putin poses to both regions, which could take on a military dimension at any time, as it did in Ukraine, obliges the EU to redouble its support for the democratic forces which act as a defensive wall against an increasingly aggressive Russian imperialism.”
Fair elections unlikely
The EU and US should start thinking about punitive measures, The Financial Times (UK) suggests:
“There are strong reasons for doubting whether this weekend's elections will be free and fair. There is likewise no indication that, if against almost all odds the democratic opposition were to win, Ivanishvili and his party would step down from power. In the event of post-election unrest, the EU and US should stand ready to serve as mediators. If Ivanishvili stays in power unfairly and continues his democratic backsliding, punitive measures against him - rather than the Georgian people - will be necessary.”
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