'Five minutes away from one-party dictatorship': Georgia's U-turn from Western path

Reuters.com ^ | November 18, 20258:28 AM CST | Lucy Papachristou

[E. Pluribus Unum]

Summary

• Leading opposition figures in jail, exile or under charge
• Lawsuit would ban three opposition parties
• Ruling party says it is shielding Georgia from figures who would foment war

TBILISI, Nov 18 (Reuters) - Just over a year ago, a diverse array of opposition coalitions jockeyed for votes in Georgia’s parliament, with four of them winning seats. Today, of their eight main leaders, all but one are in jail, in exile or facing criminal charges. The ruling party aims to ban the three main opposition groups outright.

The slide into one-party rule has shocked many in the tiny South Caucasus country of 3.7 million. In the years following the collapse of the Soviet Union, Georgia appeared a burgeoning democracy, on the fast track to joining the EU and escaping Russia's orbit.

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But now it is further from the West than at almost any time in its post-Soviet history, according to an assessment from Brussels, which described its democratic institutions as hobbled and its courts under the thumb of the state.

This month, the EU declared in a report that Georgia was now a candidate for membership "in name only". The EU ambassador in Tbilisi said Georgia was no longer on the trajectory to join the bloc at all.

Senior veterans of Georgian politics and diplomacy who spoke to Reuters about the events of the past few months said it appears as though Georgia is close to a line, beyond which it will be hard for democracy to recover.

"We are now five minutes away from one-party dictatorship," said Sergi Kapanadze, a former deputy foreign minister and deputy parliamentary speaker until 2020.

'DEMOCRATISATION MEANS AT SOME POINT YOU WILL LOSE POWER'

Natalie Sabanadze, Tbilisi's ambassador to the...

[kiryandil]

But now it is further from the West than at almost any time in its post-Soviet history, according to an assessment from Brussels, which described its democratic institutions as hobbled and its courts under the thumb of the state.

LOL Brussels LOL

[El Cid]

One Party Dictatorship you say?
Sounds like California.

[PGR88]

Georgia?

Drop the new 2000 LB “Stacey Abrams” bunker buster on them.

[Opinionated Blowhard]

It would be a shame if this happens but its not our job to make sure every country is a democracy.

[dfwgator]

A lot of Russians moved to Georgia at the start of the Ukraine war.

[Migraine]

Stalin arose from there.

[fidelis]

"Well the Ukraine girls really knock me out.
They leave the West behind.
And Moscow girls make me sing and shout
And Georgia's always on my, my, my, my, my, my, my mind."

[AlaskaErik]

Showing Germany the way. It’s just a matter of time before AfD is banned.