#GeorgiaProtests 🇬🇪✊🏻

Kremlin-backed officials in power are doing everything possible to strip Georgians of their desire for freedom.

Yesterday, Georgians were banned from voting abroad because the 1.5 million Georgian citizens living outside the country overwhelmingly support Georgia’s European integration.

That same evening, protests erupted across Georgia, and they have continued ever since.

Georgians have repeatedly demonstrated their commitment to European values, but the Kremlin does not want to allow them to live in peace and progress.

Exactly one year ago, shortly after the elections that the opposition refused to recognize, Prime Minister Irakli Kobakhidze announced that the issue of starting EU accession talks would be taken off the agenda until the end of 2028.

Participants carrying EU and Georgian flags marched to the parliament building in central Tbilisi, the epicenter of the protests that have been ongoing for a year.

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❤️✊🏻 #GeorgiaProtests

For me, it’s simple. One day, I’ll need to look myself in the mirror and know I did everything I could to defend my country’s freedom and democracy. My ancestors kept going under conditions far worse. I have no right to stop.

“Bolomde” — until the end — is what we shout every night.
And we mean it.

Public servants are fired for liking pro-EU posts or signing petitions. Opposition parties are banned, and most opposition leaders are in jail.

You may ask: why protest, when everything seems impossible?

Peaceful protest is now criminalized: covering your face can get you up to four years in prison. Media and CSOs are being suffocated. Universities are targeted. Courts are controlled by a clan. Propaganda machines—backed by troll farms and TV channels like Imedi—shape the national narrative.

But the repression has only evolved.
More than 120 people remain in prison on trumped-up criminal charges, facing years. Hundreds more have been jailed on administrative charges. Thousands have been fined under draconian laws.

When GD realized that every crackdown only produced bigger crowds, they paused, hoping the protests would fade on their own. They didn’t. One year later, the movement is alive and determined.

But the repression has evolved.
More than 120 people remain in prison on criminal charges, facing years.

I remember leaving home each evening and pouring extra food for my cat, not knowing if I’d return. Yet despite the terror, people still came—by the tens of thousands—every single night through December.

We stood there peacefully. Out of nowhere, GD unleashed violent crackdowns: tear gas, water cannons, pepper spray.

The crowd returned the next day. And the next. GD switched to mass arrests. Hundreds were rounded up, beaten in specially designed minibuses, and more than 300 ended up in hospitals.

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The people of Georgia are the picture of dedicated peaceful resistance, an inspiration to the world, and their story deserves more attention.

Thank you for supporting us! 👊🏻❤️

As a long-standing friend of the Georgian people, the Netherlands recognizes their resilience and commitment to a free and democratic Georgia. 2/2