Political turmoil in Georgia after pro-Russian party declared election winner | DW News

We begin in Georgia which has been thrown into political turmoil after the pro-Russian Georgian Dream party was declared the winner of Saturday's election. Georgia's president, who is not part of the ruling party, has announced that she will not accept the results.

Surrounded by members of the main opposition parties, President Salome Zourabichvili said the country had been the victim of a Russian "special operation". She said there had been a "total falisification" of the election and called on the people of Georgia to take to the streets to protest. The opposition is also refusing to accept the outcome.

Chapters:
0:00 Why Georgia might be in for a rough ride
0:38 Oliver Reisner, Ilia State University professor
5:18 Maria Katamadze, DW correspondent
9:02 Katya Andrusz, OSCE
15:03 Stefan Meister, German Council on Foreign Relations

Follow DW on social media:
#georgia #georgiandream #elections

[fts]

She must have received the orders from CIA. Another Venezuela about to unfold here

[lg]

If pro-EU side wins - it’s a fair game. If they lose - it’s Russian interference.

[eddastrohmayer]

President of Georgia, double - citizen of Georgia and France, former French diplomat, does not accept the result of election... what a "surprise" ...

[ThienHoang-trdh]

If the Russian embassor become the US president like her, What would we think. A women, former pro-war French embassor become the president of Georgia

[pdballerina]

I see they dusted off the color revolution play book for Georgia 🇬🇪

[ethancoster]

Is this a case of "Trump" claims or "Maduro" meddling?

[andreszapata]

So why did they make elections if they were only accept one possible result. Respect georgia's decisions

[shojunichi]

If pro NATO party wins = fair
If pro Russia party wins = unfair

[Senen-lz]

Solome was born and raised in France. She took on a foreign policy career in 1974, serving several French embassies across the world, until she was appointed during the Jacques Chirac presidency as head of the Division of International and Strategic Issues of National Defense. In 2003, Paris sent her as ambassador to Georgia during the last days of the Eduard Shevardnadze presidency, where she witnessed the Rose Revolution of November 2003 that overthrew the controversial administration of Shevardnadze and brought to power a new, Western-backed government led by Mikheil

[otarkaralashvili]

I would like to correct some statements / attitudes here.

Both the ruling party and the opposition made EU aspirations one of (if not the main) declared points of their campaign. Any other standpoint, especially an openly pro-Russian position, would have no chances with the voters. It will be wrong to say that those who voted for the ruling party thereby voted for Russia.

The anchors repeatedly asked this question, and this would be a wonderful opportunity for the respondents to clarify this. None of them did it. There is no disagreement / polarisation about what course we want, but more about where we see a better chance to achieve it. Whether the ruling party really is keen on EU integration is a different question. Whether the EU is keen on having us is another one.

The election results, rigged or no, do not contradict the wish of an overwhelming majority of Georgians to pursue a European course. At least Mr. Stefan Meister should understand this.

He sholuld also think about whether labeling the 35 to 40 percent of Georgian voters who voted for the ruling party as pro-Russian, or at least not caring, will contribute to de-polarising Georgian society (which was one of the EU requirements for accession).

P.S. I voted for the opposition.
Apologize for such a long comment.

[KvapuJanjalia]

Why don't Georgians want another clash with Russia? EU will send its troops to help, for sure.

[oops]

This is a biased overview serving a propagated agenda. GD isn't necessarily pro-Russian or anti-European in my opinion. They are against the forced LGBTQ+ agenda, foreign donors influencing politics, and direct conflict with Russia. You have to understand, we, the Georgian people, would rather slowly gain power and build a strong economy than be in open conflict with Russia while being dependent on it, especially considering they have 700, 000 ethnic Georgians living there.

We also see that the same thing that happened with Russia could happen with Europe. Russia promised us protection in the past against enemies but instead supported us mostly vocally and then slowly took over Georgia by exploiting the situation. This happened after the "Treaty of Georgievsk" in 1783, which established eastern Georgia as a protectorate of Russia. However, during the Russo-Georgian War in 2008, Russia invaded and took control of Abkhazia and South Ossetia, leading to a decisive victory for Russia where they have, yet again, revealed their true intentions.

This could happen with Europe too, out of fear of Russia, we could end up in the hands of the EU, who might then use the same tactics to slowly take control of Georgia. From our perspective, we are playing a multiplayer chess game where, for now, we are against two potential threats: one has already shown hostile tendencies, and the other isn't trustworthy but is trying to convince us otherwise. Imagine being a weak player and both sides want you out of the picture in the grand scheme. They don't invest much energy because there are more significant problems, but both have their own interests. One wants you gone because you're no longer on their side, and the other wants you on their side to destroy a huge competitor, and you have no idea whether they will stand by their words or do the same thing as the other player.

- text is mine, However, it has been grammatically and factually reviewed/corrected by 3rd party service, that could have used Generative Pretrained Transformer Large Language Models. no sentence has been altered by an Artificial Intelligence and content of it belongs to me.

-I am in no form or shape a political person nor do I support, condone, or am affiliated with any political party. I am an independent thinker and this opinion is personal. Feel free to challenge the idea, but I also ask you to be open-minded while/if willing to engage in discussion.

[truth]

At the end of the day, it's the people that vote you out.

[jayakodygaminda]

Georgian president can't handle the defeat 😂

[Pbavtor]

DW has a lot of cranky Russian brridge trolls.

[mdmotiulquader]

Old western style! If we loose then it is unfair. 😂😂

[samanthaw]

She is not the Electoral Commission she is only one person who can’t accept a democratic election result. 😂

[mxionis]

If she doesn’t like it then she must resign!

[WewasAtamans]

Opposition refusing to accept the results. How unusual.

[cshaf]

Not surprised she is fighting. NGO a are rioting. They want that money honey from the CIA😂