CROSS PURPOSE

As Georgia’s government lurches towards authoritarianism, we head to Tbilisi to celebrate the capital’s indomitable spirit, its passionately independent cultural heritage, and its defiant creatives striving to inspire hope for future generations

-  WRITER: HUGO MACDONALD

Tbilisi is simmering in the heat of high summer. Bark from the giant plane trees that line the leafier streets is peeling off the trunks in great slabs and shattering dramatically on the streets. Swallows are shrieking in the sky. The glare overhead casts surreal shadows that distort life below. The mood is oppressive and uncanny.

The feeling is matched by the political situation in Georgia at present, where the disputed ruling Georgian Dream party has introduced a raft of laws that signal an isolationist, regressive and antidemocratic stance, dismantling the country's pending candidate status for EU membership. In the elections of October 2024, despite exit polls suggesting a coalition of opposition parties were set for victory, an outright majority was declared for the Georgian Dream party. After the election, pro-democracy protests outside the parliament buildings in Tbilisi were met with violence and tear gas. Members of the political opposition have been jailed on charges of corruption without trial.

Speak to people in the capital and they describe the cognitive dissonance of living under an authoritarian regime still masquerading as a functioning government. When the apparatus of democracy disintegrates, civic society is left suspended. The prevailing feeling is to keep going, head down, day by day, in the hope that Georgia's long history and strong culture are more powerful than its current politics.