Clashes In Tbilisi: How Demonstrators Stormed The Presidential Palace
5- 5.10.2025, 9:21
- 8,078
Protesters have erected barricades, some of which have started fires.
Protesters in the aftermath of the municipal elections clashed with police in the center of Tbilisi. Demonstrators tried to storm the presidential palace and managed to break into the courtyard of the complex for a while. Police used water cannon and tear gas to disperse the protesters, BBC reported.
Many opposition representatives boycotted the election, which took place amid unprecedented pressure from the authorities on political opponents.
But the country's Prime Minister Irakli Kobakhidze declared victory for the ruling Georgian Dream party. The data was later confirmed by the country's Central Election Commission.
What was happening outside the palace
Protests have been going on in Georgia for more than 300 days. They began after parliamentary elections held in October 2024 and ended with the victory of the Georgian Dream.
The opposition accused the authorities of irregularities, did not recognize the election results and refused to take seats in parliament. And newly appointed Prime Minister Irakli Kobakhidze announced a four-year postponement of negotiations on Georgia's accession to the EU - which also caused sharp discontent among Georgia's citizens who support European integration.
Since then, protesters have blocked the central avenue of the Georgian capital every evening, although their ranks have thinned considerably. On October 4, tens of thousands of people gathered in the center of Tbilisi again.
The rally was peaceful until the moment when some of the demonstrators, at the call of the organizers, moved from the rally of thousands to the presidential palace. Before that, a declaration of the "national assembly" - as the organizers called the October 4 meeting - on the transfer of power to the Georgian people was read from a stage set up here.
The clashes between protesters and law enforcement officers began when some of the demonstrators tore down the gates of the presidential palace and stormed into the courtyard of the complex.
The riot police used water cannons and tear gas to disperse the protesters.
Demonstrators began erecting barricades, then some of them caught fire.
One of the Georgian opposition leaders, former President Salome Zurabishvili, sharply condemned such actions of the demonstrators.
"Only the regime could have organized this travesty of seizing the presidential palace to discredit the 310 days of peaceful protest of the Georgian people," she wrote on social network X.
According to BBC correspondent in Tbilisi Nina Akhmeteli, the municipal elections were held against a background of unprecedented pressure on the opposition and civil society in the country: some opposition leaders are under arrest and the accounts of several human rights and monitoring NGOs have been frozen.
Three of the four leaders of the opposition Coalition for Change have received prison sentences for refusing to appear before a parliamentary commission set up to investigate alleged crimes by former President Mikhail Saakashvili's United National Movement (UNM) party, which was in power until 2012.
The opposition considers the commission illegitimate and its work biased.
A fourth leader of the "Coalition" Elene Khoshtaria was detained in September for defacing the ruling party's election banners.
There was little threat to the ruling Georgian Dream's victory: much of the opposition refused to participate in the elections and instead planned large-scale protests.
As a result, tens of thousands of people gathered for a demonstration in Tbilisi, according to Western news agencies.
Kobakhidze said that in all municipalities, including Tbilisi, the Georgian Dream had won more than 70% of the vote.
Voter turnout, according to the Central Election Commission, was 41% across Georgia. In Tbilisi, less than a third of the population - 31% - went to the polls.
In addition, the elections were held without international observers of the OSCE, as the organization received an invitation from the Georgian authorities too late.
There were also no local authoritative non-governmental organizations present at the polls to observe the elections.
Prime Minister Irakli Kobakhidze said that the ruling party had fulfilled its forecast and promise to win in all municipalities, and that the "attempt to overthrow" had failed. He announced harsh punishments for the protesters, saying Georgia will not be a place for "a revolution organized by foreign special services".
"This overthrow action was a continuation of the 300 day protest...from here everyone draw conclusions, what will be the policy towards foreign agents and foreign agents and operations planned by foreign special services," Kobakhidze said.
After that, Georgian Deputy Interior Minister Alexander Darakhvelidze announced the detention of the organizers of the October 4 protest - Paata Burchuladze, Murtaz Zodelava, Irakli Nadiradze, Paata Manjgaladze and Lasha Beridze.
"The detainees are accused of acting to forcibly change the constitutional order or calling for the overthrow of the authorities, as well as organizing, leading and participating in group violence," Darakhvelidze said.
The organizers of the rally, including opposition politicians, were detained promptly and demonstratively. 70-year-old famous opera singer Paatu Burchuladze was taken out of the clinic where he was transferred from the protest action for examinations because he was not feeling well. Murtaza Zodelava and Irakli Nadiradze were detained by a group of police officers in front of the parliament building when they were giving comments to journalists.
The Georgian Health Ministry reports that six demonstrators and 21 policemen have been hospitalized after clashes near the presidential palace in Tbilisi, the Novosti-Georgia news agency reported. According to the agency, the condition of one of the policemen is serious. About 30 more citizens were treated on the spot.
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