The United National Movement (UNM) has issued a statement calling on supporters and the wider public to gather on November 28, marking one year since mass demonstrations against what the party describes as the “public burial” of Georgia’s EU accession process by the ruling Georgian Dream government.
Based on the statement, November 28, 2024, represents a turning point when “the Georgian people united as one fist and took to the streets to defend the country’s sovereignty, freedom, and European choice.” UNM claims that the government, “as Russia’s fifth column in Georgia,” violated the Constitution and undermined national interests, triggering the historic protests.
The party says the events of the past year have only strengthened society’s determination to defend Georgia’s European future. It accuses Bidzina Ivanishvili and the ruling party of intensifying repression through “the imprisonment of hundreds of citizens and political leaders, the dismantling of civil society, the abolition of political parties, attempts to curb academic freedom, and restrictions on free speech.”
UNM also condemned the decision to return former President Mikheil Saakashvili from the Vivamedi medical facility to Penitentiary Institution No. 12, calling it part of a campaign “to sow fear, deepen hopelessness, and appease Russia.” Saakashvili is now in his fifth year of imprisonment.
Despite what it calls a “cruel spiral of the Russian Dream,” the party insists that the government will not break the “historic courage” of Georgian society or its aspiration toward a “free, dignified, European future.”
UNM announced that it will join other opposition parties, civil organisations, and supporters in a public march on November 28. The gathering is scheduled for 19:00 at Tbilisi State University, from where participants will march toward Parliament.
“The Georgian people will again make their voice heard on this historic path, which will inevitably end in victory,” the statement concludes.
