Today, May 26, a protest rally will be held in Tbilisi, organized by the Opposition Alliance. More specifically, according to the organizing parties, at 19:00, they will gather near the first building of Tbilisi State University and march towards Rustaveli Avenue. Finally, the march will end near the Parliament, where political leaders are scheduled to deliver speeches.

It is worth noting that for this purpose, the Opposition Alliance wanted to install a stage on Rustaveli Avenue, near the legislative body, but the Tbilisi City Hall did not allow the installation of relevant structures on the territory. The statement of the capital city government reads: “Taking into account the official events planned for the Independence Day of Georgia for May 26, 2026, the traffic patterns in Tbilisi have been changed, both for public and non-public transport, which in turn means loading other streets in terms of traffic. Based on the above, we consider the arrangement of any kind of structures (including a stage) in the vicinity of the administrative building of the Parliament of Georgia to be inadmissible. As for the other locations indicated in the letter, in order to avoid additional disruption to the movement of traffic flows, we also consider the arrangement of any kind of structure (including a stage) on the roadway of transport to be inadmissible,” reads the statement of the Tbilisi City Hall, however, despite this, the organizers of the rally will still try to install a stage near the Parliament today.

In addition to the Tbilisi City Hall, the Ministry of Internal Affairs did not issue a permit for the rally on Rustaveli Avenue. The Ministry of Internal Affairs explained the reason for this as follows: “The application submitted by the organizers did not comply with the requirements set forth by law - including the deadline for submitting the application established by law was not met, and the application did not indicate the purpose of the gathering, the time of its completion, the estimated number of participants, and the form of emergency medical assistance.

Accordingly, the initiators were informed that the Patrol Police Department of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Georgia is deprived of the opportunity to carry out the measures specified in the Law of Georgia “On Assemblies”, - the Ministry of Internal Affairs stated.

Despite the position of the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Tbilisi City Hall, the Opposition Alliance does not intend to change its plans and declares that the rally scheduled for May 26 on Rustaveli Avenue will still be held.