What’s Behind the Protests in Georgia?

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For days, pro-Western Georgians have clashed with police over the government’s plan to suspend plans for European Union membership.

Thousands of Georgians demonstrated in front of their country’s parliament for the fifth night in a row on Monday, widening a political crisis that has set the country’s pro-Russian government against those who want closer ties with the West.

At the center of the clash is the announcement last week by the governing Georgian Dream party that the country would put talks on European Union membership on hold until 2028.

The president, Salome Zourabichvili, who favors accession to the E.U., has encouraged the thousands who have taken to the streets nightly to protest the delay.

“We want our European destiny to be returned to us,” she told France’s Inter Radio on Monday. The protests, which began last Thursday in Tbilisi, the capital, have spread to cities across the country, in a sign of the widening anger with the government.

Prime Minister Irakli Kobakhidze doubled down on Monday, telling reporters that there would be “no negotiations” with the opposition forces protesting and boycotting the country’s parliament.

“I remind everyone that there will be no revolution in Georgia,” he said, alleging that the protests had been “funded from abroad.”

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