The last line of defense in compe11ve authoritarianism. Strategies of civil society resistance to authoritarian progression in Georgia

The denial of the candidacy status to Georgia in 2022 exemplifies the EU’s dilemma between not wanting to reward the ‘authoritarian progression’ (Szmolka 2021) spurred by the ruling party Georgian Dream (GD), while simultaneously avoiding the alienation of a considerable part of the Georgian population and civil society that aspires for advancement in the integration process. As GD is balancing between superficially complying with EU accession requirements and keeping good relations with Russia, the EU faces the contradictory task of credibly applying political conditionality while making strategic decisions to prevent Georgia from slipping further into Russian influence. The fulfilment of the political criteria for accession is a major topic of dispute between GD and the main opposition party, the United National Movement (UNM). Polarization on both sides has led to a political deadlock and prevented the emergence of new political forces, substantially weakening the opposition as well as the implementation of necessary political reforms. This paper depicts the EU integration process as both a topic of and a platform for political contestation between GD, UNM, and pro-democratic civil society organizations. On the one hand, Georgian-EU relations are the basis of the domestic political dispute with mainly GD and opposition parties mutually accusing each other of sabotage, intending to discredit each other. On the other hand, however, one can expect EU conditionality to provide civil society actors opposing the ruling party’s authoritarian course with new opportunities. The paper focuses on the question of whether civil society organizations perceive the EU as an ally and the integration process as a framework in which they can advance their democratic political agenda amid a political atmosphere marked by ‘pernicious polarization’ (Sommer et al. 2021).