EuroPride denounces the ‘incompetence’ of the Georgian government after the attack on Pride in Tbilisi -TGN

A group of anti-LGBTQ+ protesters stormed Tbilisi Pride in Georgia and set fire to rainbow flags. (Getty)

A major European LGBTQ+ organization is demanding that the Georgian government be held accountable after Tbilisi Pride was attacked by “thugs” earlier this month.

Participants in Tbilisi Pride, held in the former Soviet republic on July 8, were evacuated after the event was stormed by thousands of anti-LGBTQ+ protesters. Organizers said the decision to cancel the event was made because authorities failed to enforce the perimeter, allowing the protesters to enter.

Many of the protesters, including members of the Orthodox Christian clergy, waved the country’s national flag and religious icons as they battled police. Pride flags were burned.

The European Pride Organizers Association is now demanding accountability for allowing “hundreds of far-right nationalist thugs” to storm the event, despite the Home Office assuring them it would be safe.

Association president Kristīne Garina said the Georgian government “has shown that their insurance policies are worthless and cannot be trusted”.

The failure to prevent the far-right protesters and their actions that led to the cancellation of the event “is the height of incompetence in public office,” she said, adding that it was also “a complete failure to carry out the government’s most important function: to protect your people.”

She also noted that this was not a one-off, with other anti-LGBTQ+ incidents occurring at Pride in the Georgian capital in recent years.

In the immediate aftermath, Tbilisi Pride criticized law enforcement for not doing so “use proportional force and measures against the attackers”going so far as to claim that the attack was a “well-planned operation jointly orchestrated” by Georgia’s Interior Ministry and a Russia-affiliated far-right group.

Alexander Darakhvelidze, Georgia’s deputy interior minister, argued that the open area where the event was held was difficult to control and that it meant the crowd found ways to get around security.

Georgia’s President Salome Zourabichvili condemned the mafia, highlighting how MPs and other branches of the ruling party had “incited, tested and openly supported” anti-LGBTQ+ protesters through social media.

“By inciting these counter-protests and not condemning these actions or hate speech, the ruling party – the majority of parliament – ​​is encouraging the violence,” she said.

“I call on the ruling party to stop hate speech and incitement to confrontation.”