GEORGIA’S outgoing president called on the European Union today to put pressure on Tbilisi to hold a new election amid ongoing protests by the losing side.

Tens of thousands of people have filled the streets in recent weeks since the governing Georgian Dream party decided to suspend negotiations on joining the 27-nation EU. Police have increasingly used force to break up the rallies.

“Europe needs to find the leverage to act. If Europe cannot exert leverage on a country of 3.7 million, how can it expect to compete with the giants of the 21st century?” Georgian President Salome Zourabichvili, whose party lost, told EU politicians in Strasbourg, France.