As every Saturday, at eight in the evening, nearly a thousand people have gathered in Avlabari Square, near the center of the Georgian capital. The protest atmosphere, with a profusion of national flags and anti-government slogans, and their demands are not very different from those of other countries suffering an authoritarian drift in the current global populist wave.

For a year now, Tbilisi's central Rustaveli Avenue has become the stage for resistance in Georgia every night. Waving Georgian and European Union flags, critics of the government led by the Georgian Dream party have demonstrated continuously in front of Parliament since November 28th of last year, when the last parliamentary elections were held. considered a fraud by the country's opposition and much of the international communitySince then, repression against dissent has intensified, to the point that all but two opposition party leaders are imprisoned; one of them is under investigation and lives in exile. Furthermore, the government has begun the process of outlawing the three main rival parties.