Thousands in Georgia rally for EU membership as country marks 35th independence anniversary
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Waving Georgian and EU flags, thousands of protesters marched through central Tbilisi before staging a rally outside parliament amid a heavy police presence.
Georgia on Tuesday marked its Independence Day with a parade attended by officials and new military service recruits taking their oath, and that saw thousands of Georgians take to the streets later in the day for a pro-Europe rally in the capital, Tbilisi.
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The rally comes during deep polarisation within Georgian society and in what many critics say is the government's democratic backsliding and anti-Western tilt.
Waving Georgian and EU flags, thousands of protesters marched through central Tbilisi before staging a rally outside parliament amid a heavy police presence.
Many held placards reading "We are Europe" and portraits of jailed former president Mikheil Saakashvili, who pushed for close ties with the West while in office.
"We've been out in the streets for more than 500 days, and we'll keep coming out for as long as it takes to defend Georgia's European future," one protester said.
"People will win in the end. No authoritarian government can stand up to a united people -- and we are united," said another protester, 59-year-old chemist Irakli Nanadze.
The rally was organised by an alliance of opposition parties that has recently been working to overcome divisions and forge a united front against the government.
Critics accuse the ruling party of democratic backsliding and moving the country closer to Moscow, allegations the government denies.
Georgia 'independent and sovereign as never before' says PM
Prime Minister Irakli Kobakhidze said last year that Tbilisi's path towards joining the EU was "steady and irreversible", despite Brussels effectively freezing Georgia's accession process.
On Tuesday in his independence anniversary speech, Kobakhidze urged every patriotic Georgian to take pride in the fact that Georgia is independent and sovereign as never before.
"It is precisely the strengthening of our independence and sovereignty that has enabled our country, despite the most difficult challenges, to firmly defend its faith, preserve peace and remain on the continuous path of progress and development — a path that will inevitably lead us to the Promised Land, the achievement of all our national goals, to a united and flourishing Georgia,” Kobakhidze said.
RelatedJoining the EU is inscribed in Georgia's constitution and, according to opinion polls, is widely supported by more that 80 percent of the population.
Last year, the governing Georgian Dream party announced plans to ban its main opposition rivals, a proposal widely condemned by critics as a further step toward authoritarian rule.
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