By Martin Banks - 27th June 2011
It is, basically, a dictatorship
Nino Burdzhanadze
The leader of the Georgian opposition has called on the EU to "understand that Europe has a new dictator".
The comments, by Nino Burdjarnadze, come after a five-day opposition protest against the country's president, Mikheil Saakashvili, ended in violence last month.
The 26 May protest was organised by Burdjarnadze, the leader of the People's Assembly party, and other opposition leaders. A total of 37 people were hospitalised, eight of them police officers.
Speaking to this website, Burdjarnadze said the government's response to the "peaceful" protest highlighted "serious" problems in the country.
She said, "It is, basically, a dictatorship. There are serious problems with press freedom and an absence of fair and democratic elections.
"I do not want Georgia to descend into the same sort of mess that we now see in places like Libya.
"But it is a fragile stability that currently exists which could explode at any time."
Burdjarnadze is a former speaker of the Georgian parliament and has twice served as the country's head of state.
She was in Brussels last week for meetings with MEPs and other EU officials in a bid to lobby support for the Georgian opposition parties.
"I am here to call on the EU and its member states to show more interest in and understanding of the current situation in Georgia.
"Recent events in the Arab world have somewhat overshadowed what is happening in Georgia. The situation is bad and it is deteriorating.
"The violent way in which the Georgian government tried to put down a peaceful and democratic protest on 26 May illustrated the scale of the problem."
She recently met EU enlargement commissioner Štefan Füle in Georgia and said she believes the official "understands the situation".
"Every day of the reign of Saakashvili represents a threat not only to the state and national interests, but also to regional stability.
"Georgian citizens face ever-increasing problems on a daily basis, including hunger, poverty and increasing prices.
"At the same time, Sakashvili and his direct circle are getting rich. There is no democracy in the country and the constitutional rights of citizens are violated."
Speaking in parliament, she added, "The world should not close eyes on the creation of what is a façade of democracy in Georgia."
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