At the bus stop in Freedom Square, people stamp their feet to keep warm. At the start of the week, the buzz that animates Tbilisi's trendy venues grows more muffled. Only stray dogs remain on the streets. It is half past ten in the evening. The temperature is dropping below zero, but just a little further along, despite the cold, the same ritual plays out in front of parliament on Rustaveli Avenue.

Ever since November 2024, when the ruling party Georgian Dream announced the suspension of EU accession talks until 2028 — in response to a decision that had in fact been anticipated by Brussels — a small group of protesters has gathered religiously in front of parliament every evening. They are mostly young people. They pull megaphones and European Union flags out of their backpacks. "See her over there, she's the most fired-up of the group. She's here every evening," says Levan, pointing to a girl who picks up the megaphone and launches into a chant that has been repeating for months now. They are calling for new elections and the release of protesters arrested during the demonstrations. When it all began, following the passage of the law on foreign agents that sparked fierce reactions in this country now torn between the dream of Euro-Atlantic integration and a possible return to the Russian sphere of influence, Levan had even considered leaving Georgia with his family. Then he decided to stay. "We need people to keep protesting," he explains to LifeGate.

And while in January 2025 the protesters in front of parliament numbered only a few dozen, by February they had returned to the thousands. On 14 February 2025 they set off from Europa Square, where a piece of the Berlin Wall brought here in 2017 as a gesture of friendship with Germany stands tall, and marched along the river waving not only European Union and Georgian flags, but also German and American ones. At the head of the procession were banners reading "No to Russian dictatorship. We demand new elections."

For more than 80 days now, protests in Tbilisi have continued without interruption — a sign that part of the Georgian population is not willing to take a single step back on the path of integration with the European Union, a path enshrined in the Constitution but abruptly halted by the policies of the ruling party Georgian Dream, which according to many civil rights defenders is turning its back on democratic values and taking an increasingly authoritarian turn, as evidenced by the brutal crackdown carried out by law enforcement during the protests of recent months. According to human rights activists, around 400 protesters were arrested between November and December alone, many of whom claim to have been subjected to physical or psychological abuse by police.

The clash with Brussels

Against the backdrop of these tensions, the standoff with Brussels shows no sign of abating either. Brussels considers the October 2024 elections — which confirmed the Georgian Dream party with 54% of the vote — to have been marred by fraud, as the Georgian opposition also maintains.

On 13 February, with a resolution passed by 400 MEPs (63 against and 81 abstentions), the European Parliament declared the Georgian Dream government illegitimate, calling for sanctions against affiliated politicians and the release of those detained during the recent protests.

Despite the resolution and Brussels' firm stance, however, Georgia's former president, the pro-European Salomé Zourabichvili, speaking from the stage of the Munich Security Conference, said she did not see "enough reaction from European and American partners" against the "illegitimate puppet government that came to power in Georgia." She also stressed the country's geopolitical importance, noting that Russia and China are seeking to gain greater control over the Black Sea.

Political and strategic interests

Behind this crisis, however, lie not only matters of domestic politics and the tug-of-war with the EU: it is no secret that the war in Ukraine has turned Georgia into an alternative transit route for Eurasian trade corridors, making it a key energy hub in a region coveted by both the United States and their European partners and by Russia and China — with the latter, incidentally, Tbilisi has recently signed a strategic partnership.

Furthermore, diplomatic sources argue that the push to accelerate Georgia's Euro-Atlantic integration was a calculated political move by Western allies — driven above all by the Baltic states — designed as an anti-Russian strategy.

In short, behind the defence of democratic principles lie far more complex political games and economic and power dynamics.

According to some analysts, among the priorities to be safeguarded should be the country's security and stability — and not only for the benefit of Georgians, given that what happens there indirectly concerns Italy as well, the second-largest trading partner of Tbilisi after Germany.

Italy has a number of interests in the region. First and foremost, security: the war in Ukraine has redrawn some of the routes used by drug traffickers, and today, in the mosaic of trafficking and organised crime, Georgia is under close scrutiny. This is why bilateral cooperation on the security front is of paramount importance for our country as well.

Second, Georgia today plays a strategic role in energy transport infrastructure. One need only think of the project to double the capacity of Tap (Trans Adriatic Pipeline), which carries Azerbaijani gas to Europe passing through Georgia, with the aim of reaching at least 20 billion cubic metres of gas per year. Such an investment, however, requires that the countries in the region enjoy a degree of stability.

Finally, it should be noted that Georgia currently serves as a transit point for 10 million tonnes of goods, coming mainly from China and heading towards Europe. A volume that Tbilisi aims to double in the coming years, but to do so it will need to develop its infrastructure — roads, airports, railways — that could potentially involve foreign investors. Perhaps this is also why Italy has so far sought to maintain a fairly neutral (or ambiguous, depending on one's perspective) stance on Georgia's internal political situation, in an attempt to "maintain channels of dialogue, including critical ones, with the Tbilisi authorities," as Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani put it.

Popular support

Regardless of the political and economic games at play, polls show that around 80 per cent of the Georgian population is in favour of European integration. But beyond the numbers, there are also those who quietly confess a degree of scepticism — a reminder that the situation is far more complex and nuanced than it might appear. "Why push so hard for European integration when we're simply not ready?" says Giorgi. Giorgi runs one of Tbilisi's trendy venues — one of those hipster-style cocktail bars that, alongside the techno clubs, evoke the vibrant, transgressive nightlife of Berlin. "We're not ready yet for the reforms needed to join Europe," Giorgi told LifeGate. "Our country still has a long way to go and many internal problems to solve, first and foremost the issue of Abkhazia…"

Support for European Union integration comes above all from the younger segment of the population — those born and raised after the collapse of the USSR. Outside the major urban centres, however, especially among older generations, it is still relatively easy to find a certain conservatism that winks at the ruling Georgian Dream party. A conservatism also backed by the Georgian Orthodox Church, which continues to wield enormous influence over the population.

The result is a divided country. Split between a past that seemed consigned to history and a future that, it appears, will at least for now be rewritten — or deferred.

Social tensions

"Georgia has always been a land of passage. A place where many different peoples have converged. Georgians are indeed very welcoming people. But now people no longer understand which direction we are heading in," Bishop Giuseppe Pasotto, apostolic administrator for the Latins of the Caucasus, who has been living in Georgia for nearly thirty years, told LifeGate. "There has long been a desire to unite Georgia with Europe. This country has never looked to the East. But precisely now that they are closer than ever to Europe, paradoxically they have never been so far away. And people feel all of this as a betrayal of history." A history that has also torn apart relations with Russians. "Twenty years ago you didn't feel all this opposition towards Russia," says Monsignor Pasotto. "Now there are divided families. It's a problem that didn't exist before. Political tension has also fuelled social tension."

Indeed, episodes of intolerance towards Russians – who make up a large share of Tbilisi's residents – have now become frequent. With the paradox that sometimes the irritation spills over onto Ukrainians, or Kazakhs, or Azerbaijanis, simply because they are heard speaking in Rus