As the intensified street protests in Georgia stretch into their second week, the ruling Georgian Dream party’s shift toward authoritarianism is extending beyond the use of violent police tactics and mass arrests to quell its critics. Legislative moves in the making seem designed to buttress a police state.

To address its immediate challenge of crushing street-based opposition to its policies, the government is pushing for a law that would ban the wearing of masks at protests, except by police. The measure is slated for adoption soon by parliament, which is deemed illegitimate by opposition forces following the October election marred by myriad irregularities. The law would make it easier for officials to identify and target protesters. 

Authorities are additionally mulling a restrictive law on pyrotechnics, a reaction to the widespread use of fireworks by anti-government protesters. Once passed, the import, export, production or sale of fireworks in Georgia will require a permit, and unauthorized possession or sale will be criminalized.

Another bill under consideration aims to reshape police employment rules, enabling the minister to handpick employees without a competitive vetting process. Meanwhile, GD lawmakers are considering a measure to increase police salaries, a move intended to reinforce the loyalty of police officers to the incumbent government.

Top government officials also were not pleased with public-sector employee resistance to the late November announcement that Georgia was halting efforts to qualify for European Union membership, an announcement that accelerated the protest movement. Georgian Dream now wants to amend the Civil Service Law to “simplify reorganization issues.” GD faction leader Mamuka Mdinaradze claims it will “aid public sector recovery,” though it seems more like a tool to quash dissent within the bureaucracy.

At present, the loyalty of police officers to Georgian Dream may be shakier than appearances would suggest. Giorgi Gakharia, a former prime minister and minister of internal affairs, now an opposition leader, said that over 100 officers have formally submitted resignation requests. Yet, the ministry refuses to accept them, leaving the officers in limbo.

Meanwhile, the US Department of State has hinted at sanctions after calling GD’s actions “brutal and unjustified violence.” The EU is planning to discuss future actions during a pre-Christmas Council meetings in Brussels, but already has issued a critical report, outlining steps Georgia must take to keep its visa-free Schengen access. A decision to suspend visa-free travel to the EU by Georgian citizens could potentially cause a sharp spike in anti-government sentiment in Georgia.

At the same time, the EU delegation in Georgia offered praise for President Salome Zourabichvili’s “work in defending Georgia’s democratic and EU aspirations.”

This was followed by the president’s working meeting with ambassadors from all EU member states in Georgia. Just a day earlier, she visited France at the invitation of President Emmanuel Macron and became the first Georgian official to meet with President-elect Donald Trump since his election victory in November. According to her account of the meeting, she “exposed the stolen election and the deeply alarming repression against the people of Georgia,” while emphasizing the need for a strong US presence in the Caucasus.

In addition to backing Zourabichvili, President Macron dialed up oligarch Bidzina Ivanishvili directly, urging him to free those jailed on questionable charges and to uphold freedoms of speech and assembly. For the opposition, it was yet another signal that European leaders see Ivanishvili, who officially does not hold a top governmental position, as the true center of power within Georgian Dream.