Protesters clashed with police in Georgia’s capital for a fourth straight night on Sunday, with signs that opposition was spreading across the country to the government’s decision to suspend talks on joining the European Union.

Georgia’s Ministry of Internal Affairs said on Monday that 21 police officers were injured during a crackdown against pro-EU demonstrations by thousands of people.

In total, 224 people have been arrested during the rallies supported by pro-West President Salome Zourabichvili .

“Another powerful night of Georgians standing firm to defend their constitution and their European choice. The determination in the streets shows no signs of stopping!” Zourabichvili , who supports Georgia’s integration with the EU, posted on X.

Tensions have been rising for months in the country of 3.7 million people between the governing party Georgian Dream and opponents who accuse it of pursuing increasingly authoritarian, anti-Western and pro-Russian policies.

The crisis has deepened since Thursday’s announcement that the government would freeze EU talks for four years, with thousands of pro-EU demonstrators facing off against police, who used tear gas and water cannon.

Zourabichvili called for pressure to be brought on the Constitutional Court to annul last month’s elections, won by Georgian Dream. Both the opposition and Zourabichvili say the poll was rigged.

Georgian Prime Minister Irakli Kobakhidze has rebuffed calls for new elections.

Beyond the capital, Georgian news agency Interpress said demonstrators had blocked an access road into the country’s main commercial port in the Black Sea city of Poti.

Georgian media reported protests in at least eight cities and towns. Opposition TV channel Formula showed footage of people in Khashuri, a town of 20,000 in central Georgia, throwing eggs at the local Georgian Dream office.

Kobakhidze shrugged off Washington’s announcement on Saturday that it was suspending a strategic partnership with Tbilisi. He said this was a “temporary event”, and Georgia would talk to the new administration of President-elect Donald Trump when it takes office in January.

President Zourabichvili said on Saturday she would not step down when her term ends this month, saying the new parliament was illegitimate and had no authority to name her successor.

For much of the period since the 1991 collapse of the Soviet Union, Georgia has leaned strongly towards the West and tried to loosen the influence of Russia, to which it lost a brief war in 2008. It became an official candidate for EU entry last year and has been promised eventual NATO membership.

But domestic opponents and Western governments have become concerned that the Georgian Dream is intent – despite its denials – on abandoning that course. In June, it enacted a law obliging nongovernmental organisations to register as “foreign agents” if they received more than 20 percent of their funding from abroad. Parliament in September approved a law curbing LGBTQ rights.

The government says it is defending the country’s sovereignty and trying to prevent it from suffering the fate of Ukraine by being dragged into a new war with Russia.

Georgia’s pro-Western president says she will remain in office until new elections are held to replace the country’s “illegitimate” anti-West parliament, which withdrew from talks to join the European Union, sparking mass protests.

President Salome Zourabichvili, who was set to be replaced by the opposing parliament Dec. 14, said she is following the will of the people by staying to oversee new elections — after four consecutive days of protests following allegations that last month’s parliamentary elections were fixed and the ruling body then dashing hopes for Georgia to join the EU.

The president’s move will likely set up a new political showdown between her and the Moscow-aligned parliament.

“What we’re seeing today is really the civil society taking over because the state is falling apart,” Zourabichvili told the BBC over the weekend.

“I’m offering this stability for the transition, because what these people on the streets are demanding is a call for new elections in order to restore this country and its European path,” she added.  

Thousands of demonstrators in the Georgian capital of Tbilisi and other cities across the country continued to march Sunday, clashing with police and throwing fireworks in demonstrations aimed against the pro-Russian parliament.

The protests carried on despite violent clashes where crowds were met by riot police firing water cannons and tear gas.

The governing Georgian Dream Party, which has been in power since 2012, has been accused of fixing elections while trying to move away from the EU and align the country with Moscow, which briefly invaded Georgia in 2008.

Zourabichvili accused the ruling party of removing any independent institution in the nation and steering Georgia under its pro-Russian whims.

“I am president because I’ve been elected by the people, and I’m president until the time when it’s inauguration for a president who is legitimately elected by a legitimately elected parliament,” she said of her plan to remain in office.

The European Parliament issued a resolution Thursday slamming the ruling party as responsible for the “worsening democratic crisis” in the nation, echoing allegations that the party engaged in voter intimidation and manipulation in its bid for control over the country.

After the resolution, Georgian Prime Minister Irakli Kobakhidze decided to throw out talks of joining the EU “until the end of 2028.”

Kobakhidze accused the pro-Western opposition of planning a coup, and the State Security Service said political parties were attempting to “overthrow the government by force.”

The prime minister claimed 50 officers were injured in the protests by people who allegedly “threw Molotov cocktails, pyrotechnics, glass, stones at the police.”

The US has slammed the decision to suspend the process of joining the EU, with the Biden administration saying it “goes against the promise to the Georgian people enshrined in their constitution to pursue full integration into the European Union and NATO.”

American officials said Saturday that the US was suspending its strategic partnership with Georgia over the “anti-democratic actions.”

Georgia’s ambassadors to Bulgaria, Netherlands and Italy have also resigned in protest of their government’s decision.

With Post wires

A string of top officials including the Georgian ambassadors to Italy, the Netherlands and Lithuania have resigned in protest at the move, as well as Deputy Foreign Minister Temur Janjali.

“What we see is this resistance has really gone beyond previous public demonstrations,” said Tinatin Akhvlediani, a senior researcher with the EU foreign policy unit at the Centre for European Policy Studies. “The ruling Georgian Dream party is in trouble because it’s difficult to see how they can justify making this announcement given widespread support for joining the EU, and it looks like they will use all their forces to silence people.”

On Saturday night, Georgian President Salome Zourabichvili — who has previously accused Georgian Dream of rigging October’s parliamentary elections — insisted the government had “no mandate” to stay in power. The unrest, she said, “is not a revolution, it is stability,” and called for the EU to step in to oversee a new round of voting.

In a resolution passed on Thursday, the European Parliament agreed that the election had been “neither free nor fair,” echoing concerns from international election observers who warned the process had been marred by intimidation and vote buying. Georgian Dream was returned to power with a sizeable majority despite growing concerns over its break with the EU — and broad public support for joining the bloc.

Speaking to POLITICO, Nathalie Louiseau, a French MEP and vice-chair of the EU-Georgia Parliamentary Association, said the bloc’s new leadership — foreign affairs chief Kaja Kallas, incoming European Council President Antonio Costa and enlargement boss Marta Kos — need to rise to meet the challenge. “I would strongly encourage them to go to Tbilisi, meet with the President and the protesters, and ask for new elections,” Louiseau said.

EU officials announced in July that Georgia’s membership application had been frozen after the ruling party introduced a string of Russian-style legislation, branding Western-backed NGOs as ‘foreign agents’ and cracking down on LGBTQ+ rights. Authorities used force to dispel crowds protesting against the rules, deploying tear gas and batons, while opposition figures were detained and beaten.

The U.S. imposed sanctions on Georgian Dream politicians and police chiefs over the violence.

The U.N.’s special rapporteur on freedom of assembly, Gina Romero, said reports of police violence over the weekend were “disturbing” and called on Georgian Dream “to respect the right to freedom of peaceful assembly.”