Georgia: Europe, seen from the balcony

Demonstration for democrazy in Tbilisi

From a low wall diagonally opposite, there’s a good view of the Georgian parliament: a carefully tended strip of green, bubbling fountains of water, columns of the Stalinis monument, and yellow tape cordoning off the entire area. “Do not cross” is even printed in English. The parliament has been declared a restricted area, at least temporarily, on this scorching midday. A few camera crews have set up adjacent to the barrier tape - anything can happen, after all. And for the same reason, police cars have pulled up on the surrounding side streets. Pure tension, then? None of that - more like routine conflict and a show of power. After a short time, the cameras disappear, and a police officer unhurriedly rolls up the yellow tape. The cordon’s unceremonious removal now seems just as arbitrary as the cordon itself.

Anyone who wants to know what all this is about can now head back up the steps to the young man in the white shirt who is sitting alone on a camping chair between the pillars of the parliament building. Behind him, two tents filled with sleeping bags and mattresses are set up. Above him stretches a protest banner reading in black letters: “Sanctions against Putin’s puppet Ivanishvili and his pro-Russian government.”

Bidzina Ivanishvili is the strong man in Georgian politics, and the richest man in the country with a fortune earned in Russia. He and the ruling party he founded, “Georgian Dream,” are villains in the opposition’s ongoing nightmares, which revolve around election fraud and anti-democratic laws. “I want the whole world to understand what this is about,” says the young activist, who introduces himself as Giorgi Stepanov. “I want us to belong to Europe and be protected from Russia.”

It’s a conflict that has dominated Georgian politics for a long time due to the country’s geopolitical situation, but also to the zeitgeist, which is evident everywhere. The struggle between government and civil society is essentially about where the country’s path leads - toward an autocracy modeled on Russia, or the freedom that Europe, or more precisely the European Union, stands for.

Georgia is by no means the only theater of this struggle. In Serbia, for example, and elsewhere, students demonstrate with similar chants. But perhaps nowhere is the confrontation waged with such ferocity and persistence as in Tbilisi, where demonstrations have been taking place every single day for many months, where slogans are repeatedly met with police batons, and where for the demonstrators it’s a matter of life and death.

From Georgia, often referred to as the “balcony of Europe,” it’s worth taking a look further west. A look at what this Europe, to which the demonstrators direct their longing and their hopes, actually is. It’s a view from the balcony that raises more questions than answers.

Europe, as seen from Georgia, is a continent divided in two - no longer East or West, North or South, but into Above or Below, Inside or Outside. Those inside the EU can complain about Brussels’ bureaucracy and regulatory frenzy. Those outside are attracted by its founding values, prosperity, and promise of peace and freedom. Inside, freedom has become so taken for granted that quite a few already seem to have grown weary of it, which is why an anti-liberal camp is growing and proliferating. Outside, in Georgia, Tbilisi’s Freedom Square is literally a stone’s throw from the parliament. Freedomis being fought for. As a knowledgeable observer puts it, “people here are still willing to take a beating” for the sake of freedom and for Europe.

A common saying about the European status quo is that the EU pretends to accept all aspiring members and candidate countries pretend they actually want to be accepted - in other words, all sides are complicit in playing a false game. But how wrong this concept is can be demonstrated by civil societies, for example in Georgia, with their courageous protests that demonstrate a clear will for Europe.

But does Europe still have enough strength to honor this courage? And do the demonstrators have enough strength to prevent tipping from courage into despair? Giorigi Stepanov, the activist, stands in front of the contested parliament in Tbilisi and says bravely: “The most important thing is that Europe stands by us. I know they are doing everything they can. I am very grateful for that.”

Tbilisi, July 2025

Translation: Lisa Kremer