TBILISI, December 1. /TASS/. Forty-eight rooms in the Georgian parliamentary building have been damaged by the protesters, parliament speaker Shalva Papuashvili said.
"Dur to media coverage many might be thinking that [the protesters] failed to break into the parliamentary building and that they have only left inscriptions with paint. Following the examination of the building, I can say that 48 offices have been damaged as a result of yesterday’s attack, with almost all windows overlooking Chichinadze Street and Rustaveli Avenue being broken and office equipment being damaged. One of the building’s wooden doors was burnt down, heating and cooling equipment in the central part of the compound and the parliaments cafeteria were destroyed, storage facilities and a computer laboratory of the educational center were damaged," he told a briefing.
Georgia saw large-scale protests in the past two days. In the early hours on November 29 and 30, protest rallies grew into clashes with the police who used water cannon and teargas to disperse the crowds. According to Prime Minister Irakli Kobakhidze, this was a response "to the use of violence by the protesters."
Another anti-government rally was held in front of the parliament building in Tbilisi on Saturday evening. Later, the rally turned into a scuffle with the police. The interior ministry decided to disperse the protesters and ousted the protesters from nearby streets.
The protest was sparked by Kobakhidze's statement on November 28. He said that the ruling party had decided to postpone any talk about launching accession negotiations until late 2028 and decline any funding from the European Union. According to the premier, the decision comes after repeated attempts by the EU to blackmail Georgia with promises of launching the talks in exchange for Tbilisi revoking certain laws passed by the country’s parliament.