Thousands of Georgians surged once again into the heart of Tbilisi on Friday to mark a year since a continuous wave of public dissent first erupted in response to the government’s suspension of the country’s long-pursued EU accession track.
The city’s principal artery, Rustaveli Avenue, was filled with demonstrators carrying drums, whistles, placards and flags deep into the evening.
The daily protest movement ignited on Nov. 28, 2024, shortly after Georgian Dream announced its intention to freeze the EU integration process, an aspiration consistently cherished by Georgians, roughly 80% of whom view membership favorably according to a 2025 survey.
The decision landed only weeks after a disputed parliamentary election in October 2024 which was marred by allegations of vote tampering.
“This is the longest uninterrupted civic uprising in Georgia’s history, and likely far beyond Georgia too,” Anna Gvarishvili, a prominent Georgian journalist and editor, told Kyiv Post.
“For an entire year, every single day, no matter the weather, no matter the mood, no matter the political climate, despite enormous fines, despite mass arrests, despite laws being tightened again and again, despite fear, despair, anxiety, despite losing jobs and income, despite everything, each evening the Georgian people return to the streets, choose resistance, and stubbornly reaffirm that they will not accept a Russian-style regime.”
“They laughed and continued to beat me”
The protest movement’s first weeks were marked by a violent and often chaotic police response, as security forces deployed water cannons, tear gas, rubber bullets and pepper spray to disperse crowds, leaving hundreds injured.
Human rights monitors later detailed what they described as disproportionate force and coordinated intimidation tactics, with some 300 of the 450 people detained reporting having experienced violence, torture or other ill-treatment from police.
More than 50 journalists were also injured despite clearly identifying their professions – many requiring hospitalization – in what media workers described as targeted hostility toward newsrooms critical of the ruling authorities.
On the first night of the protests, Aleksandre Keshelashvili, a reporter for the local independent outlet Publika.ge, was assailed by dozens of police and masked men who beat him so badly that he lost consciousness, his nose broken in several places.
“Suddenly, dozens of policemen encircled us, and they just grabbed me and dragged me into their lines,” Keshelashvili recalled to Kyiv Post.
“I had a press badge, my cameras and I was shouting at them, ‘I’m a journalist – why are you beating me?’ They replied, ‘Indeed, you’re a journalist’, laughed, and continued to beat me.”
“[The state] didn’t do anything to investigate the case, to find the people who beat me… to me, it was a sign that they were repressing the media to scare us, so that we wouldn’t cover what they were doing,” Keshelashvili said.
Expansive government crackdown
As tensions mounted, in December 2024, Mikheil Kavelashvili, a staunch Georgian Dream loyalist and former Manchester City footballer, was appointed president after running unopposed in a vote boycotted by all four main opposition parties.
The outgoing pro-Western president, Salome Zourabichvili, denounced the so-called vote and continues to insist that she holds Georgia’s only remaining legitimate institution.
Parallel to cracking down on the daily demonstrations, the government introduced an expansive arsenal of administrative and legal measures designed to constrain civic mobilization.
Authorities increased fines for blocking the roads from 500 lari ($185) to 5,000 lari ($1,850), leaving some protesters saddled with over $100,000 equivalent in fines – around 10 times the average salary per annum in Georgia – according to AP.
Wearing face masks, blocking roads or erecting temporary structures became punishable with up to 15 days of administrative detention for protesters and 20 days for organizers.
Media outlets and civil society groups were hit with stringent broadcasting restrictions and a law that required that all foreign grants be vetted by a state commission.
A significant turning point came when Mzia Amaglobeli, one of Georgia’s most respected journalists and media founders, was sentenced to two years in prison after slapping a police officer – an act her supporters say occurred after deliberate provocation.
Amaglobeli is to be awarded the European Parliament’s Sakharov Prize for Freedom of Thought next month alongside Belarus’s Andrzej Poczobut.
“They try to frame journalists as protesters and activists, and we have to convince them that we are there for our jobs,” Keshelashvili told Kyiv Post. “We are constantly afraid that they will use these administrative measures against us; it makes it impossible for us to do our jobs.”
When in July the body of Vano Nadiradze, a Georgian fighter in Ukraine, was repatriated to Georgia, protesters organized a welcome and attended his funeral in lieu of the state offering the customary honor guard.
“The Georgian people have no intention of stopping”
In October 2025, Georgian Dream declared another sweeping win, this time in local elections largely boycotted by the opposition.
A night of serious unrest followed, culminating in a fringe group of protesters attempting to breach the presidential residence. Riot police moved decisively not only to disperse the fringe rioters, but also the overwhelmingly peaceful pro-democracy demonstrators with severe force.
In early November, authorities unveiled a raft of criminal charges aimed at nearly all major opposition leaders, accusing them of plotting a coup, sabotage and coordinating with foreign powers. Convictions could lead to sentences of up to 15 years, according to OC Media.
The government also blocked voting rights for the Georgian diaspora – voters who typically lean pro-opposition – and intensified its belligerent rhetoric toward European partners alarmed by the country’s democratic backsliding.
Despite this, Gvarishvili said, there are reasons for optimism: “Many say that nothing will come of this, that Georgians cannot achieve change this way. But research shows that peaceful protest is at least three times more effective.”
“And I am convinced of something else too: When you knock on the same door with persistence and consistency, eventually it opens. The regime will collapse if the Georgian people refuse to stop. And the Georgian people have no intention of stopping.”