Tbilisi, Georgia – “We will win this war, there’s no chance for defeat”, said Achi Gochitashvili, a protester who has been demonstrating outside the Georgian parliament almost daily for a year.
He’s been arrested and fined 5000 lari, a sum equivalent to two months average Georgian salary, but he remains undeterred. “They can beat us, they can jail us, but it doesn’t mean anything to us”, he told EU reports. “Our priority is to fight for our country… we will fight until our victory.”
Gochitashvili was one of thousands of people marching through the streets of the Georgian capital, Tbilisi on Friday evening to mark one year since Prime Minister Irakli Kobakhidze’s decision to halt EU integration talks. The move ignited protests across the country, which have continued nightly ever since.
In early weeks, demonstrations were met with a violent police response. Each night the city centre was choked with tear gas and security forces chased protesters through the warren of streets behind parliament until morning.
Over the months that followed, turnout gradually declined as protesters faced hefty fines and increasing surveillance, including the use of facial-recognition cameras. Last month the government further tightened protest laws making minor infringements like wearing a mask or blocking the road punishable with up to 14 days in prison initially, or up to a year for repeat offenders.
However, Friday’s protest was one of the largest since the movement began. Thousands of people marched to the parliament building, cloaked in Georgian and EU flags.
“Democratic backsliding”
In the year since the ruling Georgian Dream party secured a disputed fourth term, the government has pushed through a series of repressive laws targeting NGOs, universities, theaters, media and other civic institutions.
The leaders of major opposition parties have also been jailed. Initially they were imprisoned for their refusal to take part in a controversial parliamentary investigation, but they now face up to 15 years on further charges for alleged sabotage and aiding foreign powers.
A recent European Commission enlargement report concluded that Georgia has undergone “serious democratic backsliding”, declaring it a “candidate country in name only” and highlighting “severe restrictions on fundamental rights”.
Georgia’s foreign ministry rejected the findings, claiming it was still committed to the “goal of further aligning the country with the European standard” and accusing the EU of attempting to “influence the internal politics of the country”.
A record year for attacks on journalists
Another alarming trend over the past year has been the growing danger for journalists documenting the government’s crackdown on dissent.
Reporters Without Borders (RSF) recorded 600 attacks on the press between October 2024 and October 2025, including arrests, threats and physical assaults.
The most prominent case is that of Mzia Amoghlobeli, editor of Batumelebi and Netgazeti, who is serving a two-year prison sentence. In recent weeks, several other journalists have been briefly detained while covering nightly protests.
More than a dozen international reporters have also been banned from entering the country.
This week the RSF described the changes as “an unprecedented hardening and accelerated tightening of political control” in the country.
“We will fight on”
Back on the streets of Tbilisi, however, the mood on Friday night was unexpectedly buoyant. Despite a year marked by arrests, fines and growing fear and disillusionment, the crowds that marched to parliament showed little sign of fatigue.
“I feel we can win this fight,” Giorgi Barbakadze, another daily protester, told EU reports. “I don’t see how these protests can stop, this is what our people [deserve].”
Featured image description: Protestors wave flags at anti-government demonstration in Tbilisi.
Featured image credit: EU Reports
