The demonstrations were by far the biggest since the increasingly anti-Western ruling party was re-elected last month in a vote the pro-EU opposition says was rigged. At one point a small fire broke out in the parliament building, possibly caused by a firework. Protesters burned an effigy of Georgia’s richest man, the ruling party’s founder Bidzina Ivanishvili, on the steps of parliament. Georgian media reported other protests in towns and cities throughout the country. Earlier on Saturday, Prime Minister Irakli Kobakhidze accused the pro-EU opposition of plotting a revolution. The State Security Service said political parties were attempting to “overthrow the government by force”. The country, long one of the most staunchly pro-Western states to emerge from the breakup of the Soviet Union but lately drawn closer into Moscow’s orbit, was thrown into crisis on Thursday, when the ruling Georgian Dream party said it was halting European Union accession talks for the next four years. It accused the EU of blackmailing Georgia.