The South Caucasus country was thrown into crisis on Thursday, when Prime Minister Irakli Kobakhidze’s Georgian Dream party said it was halting European Union accession talks for the next four years over what it called “blackmail” of Georgia by the bloc, abruptly reversing a long-standing national goal.
EU membership is overwhelmingly popular in Georgia and the freezing of application talks triggered large protests in the country, which has the aim of EU membership written into its constitution.
In an address on Saturday, Zourabichvili, a pro-EU critic of Georgian Dream whose powers are mostly ceremonial, said parliament had no right to elect her successor when her term ends in December, and that she would stay in post.
Zourabichvili and other government critics say an October 26 election, in which Georgian Dream won almost 54% of the vote, was fraudulent, and that the parliament it elected is illegitimate.
“There is no legitimate parliament, and therefore, an illegitimate parliament cannot elect a new president. Thus, no inauguration can take place, and my mandate continues until a legitimately elected parliament is formed,” she said.
Earlier, Kobakhidze accused opponents of the halt to EU accession of plotting a
revolution, along the lines of Ukraine’s 2014 Maidan protest, which ousted a pro-Russian president.
“In Georgia, the Maidan scenario cannot be realized. Georgia is a state, and the state will not, of course, permit this,” Kobakhidze was quoted as saying by local media.
The country’s Interior Ministry said on Saturday it had detained 107 people in the capital, Tbilisi, overnight during a protest which saw demonstrators build barricades along the central Rustaveli Avenue, and throw fireworks at riot police, who used water cannon and tear gas to disperse them.
Many thousands of protesters were gathering on Saturday night in Tbilisi, amid a large presence of riot police.
Ambassadors resign in protest
On Saturday, Davit Solomonia, Georgia’s ambassador to the Netherlands, resigned from his post in protest of the government’s decision to halt EU accession talks.
“Most of my 30-year diplomatic career was dedicated to working on European integration. I diligently fulfilled my professional duties until I believed I could still have some impact on the course of events. Today, that hope is gone,” he said, quoted by Georgia’s private broadcaster Pirveli TV.
He added: “I condemn any violence and resign from my position as Georgia's ambassador to the Kingdom of the Netherlands.”
Georgia’s acting ambassador to Italy, Irakli Wekua, also announced his resignation on Saturday.
On Friday, Otar Berdzenishvili, Georgia's ambassador to Bulgaria, made a similar decision.
