Thousands form Georgia human chain

TBILISI: Thousands of Georgians formed human chains across the country on Saturday, in support of the European Union membership, marking the second month of their daily pro-Europe rallies.

Mass street protests gripped Georgia since November 28, when the ruling Georgian Dream party’s increasingly authoritarian government said it would not seek the opening of EU accession talks until 2028.

The protest came a day before a controversial inauguration of Georgian Dream loyalist Mikheil Kavelashvili as the county’s new president after his election was declared “illegitimate” by the current leader Salome Zurabishvili and the pro-Western opposition.

On Saturday afternoon, thousands of demonstrators, waving Georgian and EU flags, lined the Mtkvari River embankment and several bridges in the capital, Tbilisi, forming a kilometres-long human chain, an AFP reporter saw. Zurabishvili -- at loggerheads with the ruling party -- has joined the demonstrators at Tbilisi’s Dry Bridge.

Similar rallies were held across Georgia, including in the cities of Batumi, Kutaisi, Zugdidi, Poti, Samtredia, Rustavi, Gori, Khashuri, Telavi and Gurjaani, local media reported. On the Metekhi Bridge in Tbilisi’s historic district, protesters displayed a banner reading “Freedom for political prisoners.” “We demand fresh elections,” read another banner at Tbilisi’s modernist Peace Bridge.