Tens of thousands of people demonstrated in Tbilisi on June 20 in a show of support for Georgia’s EU membership bid after the European Commission recommended deferring its candidacy.
Demonstrators waving Georgian, Ukrainian, and EU flags gathered outside the parliament building for the March for Europe rally organized by the country’s leading pro-democracy groups.
Many held posters reading We Are Europe surrounded by a circle of yellow stars as the EU anthem, Ode to Joy, played. Participants marched to Europe Square, and at the end of the rally wrote messages on the plaza and signed Georgian and EU flags.
The size of the crowd was estimated at 120,000 by AFP, which said it based the estimate on video footage taken by drone cameras.
The opposition parties that supported the rally said they wanted to "demonstrate the commitment of the Georgian people to its European choice and Western values."
Joining the EU is a “historical choice and an aspiration of Georgians, for which all generations have given sacrifices," the rally organizers said on Facebook.
Shota Digmelashvili of the Shame civic rights movement read out a manifesto and announced the launch of a new popular movement that will include opposition parties, civil society organization, journalists, and labor unions to make demands on the government.
"Failure to comply with our demands will lead to mass disobedience,” the manifesto says. “All regions and cities of Georgia will stand up so that a wave of nonviolent resistance will disburse all those who block our country on the way to Europe."
According to the manifesto, the country’s main obstacle on its European path is Bidzina Ivanishvili," the billionaire founder of the ruling Georgian Dream party who is widely believed to be the top decision-maker in the South Caucasus country even though he does not hold office.
Earlier this month, the European Parliament passed a nonbinding resolution calling on the EU to impose sanctions against Ivanishvili for his "destructive role" in Georgia's politics and economy. Ivanishvili insists he has retired from politics.
The Georgian Dream party said on June 17 that it "regretted" that the country was not recommended for EU candidate status together with Ukraine and Moldova.
The Commission will return to the question by the end of 2022 and “assess how Georgia meets the number of conditions before granting its candidate status," the recommendation said.
The European Commission said the conditions that Tbilisi must fulfill include ending political polarization, progress on media freedom, judiciary and electoral reforms, and "de-oligarchization."
The Commission however recommended granting Tbilisi "the European perspective," something that Prime Minister Irakli Garibashvili hailed as a "historic decision.” He pledged to work with Brussels to "implement all the requirements and get a candidate's status."
Ukraine submitted its bid for EU membership shortly after the Russian invasion began on February 24. Moldova and Georgia followed suit immediately afterwards.
The 27 EU member states will discuss the applications of the three states at a summit later this week.
Georgia’s aspirations to forge closer ties with the West have long angered Russia. Tensions culminated in Russia's invasion of Georgia in 2008 after which Russia recognized South Ossetia and another region, Abkhazia, as independent countries and stationed thousands of its soldiers in those areas.
Georgia has been plagued by political paralysis and escalating tensions between Georgian Dream party and the opposition since parliamentary elections in 2020.
The crisis has been exacerbated by the arrest last year of former President Mikheil Saakashvili, the founder of the main opposition United National Movement party.