Two days of protests and thousands of people in the center of Tbilisi in front of the Georgian Parliament led the ruling party of this Caucasian country on Thursday to withdraw a controversial bill on "foreign agents", denounced as a means to suppress dissent. .
“As a ruling party responsible to every member of society, we have decided to unconditionally withdraw this law,” the ruling Georgian Dream party said in a statement.
In the opinion of the opposition, the new legislation was going to increase control over civil society, in a reflection of what happened in the Russia of Vladimir Putin. For this reason, opponents referred to the rule as "Russian law." And they compared it with the Russian legislation that was approved in 2012 and that has been one of the instruments of the Moscow authorities to put civil society and the independent media on the ropes.
The project on the so-called “foreign influence transparency law” was aimed at non-profit organizations and the media that receive more than 20% of their funds from abroad. Had the law been passed, those organizations would have been required to register on a blacklist or otherwise face fines.
Georgian Dream defended the law, saying it was necessary to deal with critics of the Georgian Orthodox Church, which holds a lot of power in this country of 3.7 million people.
The Georgia Parliament passed the bill in first reading on Tuesday, March 7. During the deliberations, the deputies of the ruling party and the opposition came to blows. Then the first protests began in the street. These received the support of the country's president, Salomé Zurabishvili, who is opposed to the project, which she promised to veto.
On the same Tuesday night, the participants in the demonstration tried to break into the Parliament building, in the central Rustaveli avenue of Tbilisi. They used Molotov cocktails and threw objects at the police, who in turn used water cannons and tear gas. According to the Ministry of the Interior, more than 130 people were detained and 60 policemen were injured.
The Georgian Dream deputies opted on Thursday to guarantee tranquility. But in their statement they said they had been forced to back down before a "lie machine". According to them, Georgian society has been misled by putting the “false label” of “Russian law”. And he pointed out that it was also interpreted as a renunciation of the country's integration into Europe.
The Georgian government claims that the new law it was trying to pass is based on the foreign agent laws of the United States, in force since the 1930s. In Russia, American legislation was also evoked as a justification in 2012.
But the opposition does not trust the government and at first announced that it would continue with the protests, according to Radio Tavisupleba. “We need clarity on how they are going to withdraw this law, because their statements are confusing. Secondly, until the detainees are released, Georgian Dream should not think that it will have an easy time,” said Tsotné Koberidze, a representative of the opposition Guircham party.
But the withdrawal was welcomed in the opposition ranks. "It is the merit of the citizens, who have stood up to the Russian law," said Jatuna Samnidze, an MP from the Republican Party. Araz Ajvlediani, an independent deputy, assured that an "important tactical victory" had been achieved.
The opposition found support in the European Union and the United States. The EU's High Representative for Foreign Policy, Josep Borrell, warned that the project goes "against" Georgia's goal of one day joining the Union. Washington said on March 7 that it was a "black day" for Georgian democracy. Numerous international NGOs also condemned the regulation that was intended to be approved.
