On November 28, 2024, the Georgian Prime Minister announced that the country’s ambition to join the European Union would be postponed to 2028. That very evening, thousands of people gathered in the streets of Tbilisi, Georgia’s capital city, as well as in dozens of cities across the country, to protest against this decision and, more broadly, against the government’s increasingly autocratic and pro-Russian tendencies under the ruling « Georgian Dream » party.

I followed the first nights of demonstrations, which lasted for months and were met with exponentially increasing police repression. Far from being limited to a young generation aspiring to Europe and democracy, this popular movement brought together Georgians of all ages—from children on their parents’ shoulders to elderly individuals waving Georgian or European flags.