\n
Protests against Georgian Dream began immediately after the October elections but they burst into life on 28 November when the government announced it was putting EU accession negotiations on hold until 2028.<\/p>\n
An overwhelming majority of Georgians back the country\u2019s path to the European Union and it is part of the constitution.<\/p>\n
Every night, the main avenue outside parliament fills with protesters draped in EU flags, demanding new elections.<\/p>\n
The night before the vote, the capital Tbilisi was convulsed by pop-up protests involving IT specialists, public sector workers, creative industry professionals, actors and lawyers.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are standing here to create a legal state once and for all, to respect the provisions of the constitution and human rights,\u201d said lawyer Davit Kikaleishvili, 47.<\/p>\n
Protesters gathered outside Parliament on Saturday<\/p>\n
Kavelashvili is a founder of the People\u2019s Power party, known for being the main voice for anti-Western propaganda in Georgia.<\/p>\n
He has accused opposition parties of acting as a \u201cfifth column\u201d directed from abroad, and described President Zourabichvili as a \u201cchief agent\u201d.<\/p>\n
Kavelashvili moved into politics after he was disqualified from seeking the leadership of the Georgian football federation because he lacked the qualifications.<\/p>\n
Although his party ran alongside Georgian Dream in the October elections, it has now decided to act in parliament as a \u201chealthy opposition\u201d, to fill the place of the \u201cso-called radical opposition funded by foreign forces\u201d.<\/p>\n
A People\u2019s Power party MP, Guram Macharashvili, who announced on 13 December that his faction would leave the ruling parliamentary majority, told the BBC that what was happening in the country was an \u201cartificially created crisis characterised by the influence of foreign powers\u201d.<\/p>\n
Macharashvili and Kavelashvili are the architects of Georgia\u2019s controversial \u201cforeign agents\u201d law, seen by the country\u2019s opposition as Russian-style legislation.<\/p>\n
When asked what \u201chealthy opposition\u201d means, Macharashvili said: \u201cOpposition does not necessarily mean opposition on all issues, it does not mean only cooperation with foreigners. It means competition with the ruling party to make better proposals on what\u2019s best for Georgia\u2019s future.\u201d<\/p>\n
Georgian Dream, founded by billionaire businessman and former Georgian PM Bidzina Ivanishvili, has been accused of dragging the country back into Russia\u2019s sphere of influence.<\/p>\n
Both the EU and US have condemned the government for democratic backsliding and more than 460 people have been detained across Georgia over the past two weeks, according to Transparency International.<\/p>\n
More than 300 have been ill-treated or tortured, the organisation says, including dozens of people from Georgian media. Last weekend, thugs were filmed attacking a TV reporter and cameraman.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
The post Georgia\u2019s turmoil deepens as ex-footballer named president<\/a> appeared first on KBC<\/a>.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A former Manchester City footballer has been appointed president by Georgia\u2019s disputed parliament, after 17 days of pro-EU protests that have swept this country\u2019s towns and cities. Mikheil Kavelashvili, now 53, is a former MP from the increasingly authoritarian ruling Georgian Dream party and was the only candidate for the job. On Saturday, 224 out […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-105282","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","entry"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/105282","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=105282"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/105282\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=105282"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=105282"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=105282"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}