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The nation's leader, Irakli Kobakhidze, has unveiled a broad suppression on dissent, accusing protesters who tried to breach the official residence of aiming to overthrow his government and blaming the European Union for meddling in the country's affairs.

The prime minister leveled these accusations just a day after protesters attempted to breach the presidential building during municipal polls. Riot police halted their advance by using pepper spray and water cannon.

"Not a single person will escape accountability. This encompasses political accountability," Kobakhidze was quoted as saying.

Officers arrested at least five demonstrators, including two members of the United National Movement and the opera singer turned activist Paata Burchuladze.

Local media reported the ministry of health as stating that 21 members of the security forces and 6 demonstrators had been hurt in clashes in central Tbilisi.

Context of the Political Crisis

The nation of Georgia has been in turmoil since the prime minister's ruling GD party declared win in the previous year's general election, which the pro-EU opposition asserts was stolen. Since then, Tbilisi's talks on entering the European Union have been frozen.

Kobakhidze said that up to seven thousand people participated in Saturday's protest gathering but their "effort to overthrow the government" had been thwarted despite what he described as support from the European Union.

"Several people have been detained – first and foremost the leaders of the attempted overthrow," he informed reporters, stating that the country's main opposition force "will be barred from being active in Georgian politics."

Opposition Calls and Administration Response

Opposition figures had urged a "non-violent uprising" against Georgian Dream, which they accuse of being pro-Russian and authoritarian. The party has been in power since 2012.

A large crowd of protesters gathered in the center of the city, displaying Georgian and EU flags, after an extended period of Kremlin-style raids on independent media, limitations on civil society and the arrest of dozens of critics and activists.

Kobakhidze blamed the EU's ambassador to Georgia, Paweł Herczyński, of meddling. "It is known that certain individuals from abroad have publicly stated explicit backing for these actions, for the announced attempt to disrupt the constitutional order," he remarked, noting that the ambassador "bears special responsibility in this context."

"The ambassador should come out, distance himself and strictly condemn everything that is happening on the streets of Tbilisi," said the prime minister.

EU Response and Continuing Political Tensions

In the summer, the EU's diplomatic service rejected what it termed "false information and baseless accusations" about the EU's alleged role in Georgia.

The pro-European factions have been staging protests since last October, when GD won a parliamentary election that its critics claim was marred by fraud. The party has rejected allegations of vote-rigging.

The country has the goal of joining the European Union enshrined in its founding document and has long been one of the most pro-western of the Soviet Union's successor states. Its relations with the Western nations have been strained since Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022.

Georgian Dream is directed by its founder, Bidzina Ivanishvili, the country's richest man and a former prime minister, and rejects it is aligned with Russia. It states it wants to join the EU while preserving stability with Moscow.