Citizen march for EU integration held in Tbilisi ahead of elections

A march in support of Georgia’s European Union aspirations involved citizens in Tbilisi on Sunday, a week before the country’s general elections on October 26. 

Organised by a coalition of non-governmental organisations, the demonstration aimed to highlight the country’s commitment to European integration, the organising groups said in press comments, condemning what they called the current Government’s “anti-Western course”.  

Addressing the crowd, President Salome Zourabichvili made an appeal to Western partners, saying "we will be the kind of partner and ally that you never dreamed of when we enter Europe. I do not want to hear any ‘if’s these days. It is clear that Georgia and its future are already winners here”. 

Responding to the march, Mamuka Mdinaradze, the Executive Secretary of the ruling Georgian Dream party, dismissed it as a “failed attempt to sway voters”, pointing to a “small number” of people.  

They [the Government opponents] have ended up in a hopeless situation. The opposition lost the election a week before it even took place”, the official claimed. 

In their comments on the event, GD representatives have claimed a “radical wing” of the domestic opposition and their “affiliated NGOs and media” being behind the march.