After two days of stormy demonstrations in the streets of the capital Tbilisi, the Georgian government withdrew the proposal of the ‘Foreign Agents Law’ that caused the big storm. In the announcement it was clarified that the bill was continued, and that the entire program was canceled without reservations or conditions – “We still believe that this is a good law, but we are renouncing it completely so as not to divide the people,” the announcement said
The government in Georgia surrendered to the protesters and stopped the legislation of the ‘Foreign Agents Law’. The drama unfolded after the Georgian parliament began enacting a law designed to limit the influence of foreign countries on what is happening in the country, and the move provoked strong opposition from the opposition and its supporters. In recent days, the protest reached its peak, when crowds took to the streets and demonstrated against the legislative process. For two nights, riots and severe clashes took place in Tbilisi. The police responded by firing tear gas and extensive use of water hoses to disperse the crowds who were trying to break into the parliament building and government institutions.
The night before, a number of Molotov cocktails were even thrown at police officers, in a move seen as a particularly serious escalation. The police also accordingly increased the use of water hoses, tear gas and other means to disperse protesters. According to the law that the parliament tried to enact, any influential media or organization that operates in the country and that 20 percent or a higher percent of its budget comes from abroad, will be required to register as a ‘body operating under foreign influence’.
The Georgian opposition strongly claimed that Vladimir Putin, the president of Russia, also passed similar legislation in Russia about a decade ago, and since then significantly strengthened his grip on power and turned Russia into a definitive dictatorship. The President of Georgia, Saloma Zoravishvili, who is currently in the US, also joined the protest against the parliament and the prime minister, and encouraged the opponents to come out and demonstrate with all their might: “We will not allow this law to pass in any way, in any way,” she said, “We worked hard to become a democracy , and we will not agree to step back.”
The Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Union Joseph Borrell declared that “the law is incompatible with the values of the European Union and its standards. It is contrary to the declared goal of Georgia to join the Union, as a large majority of Georgian citizens want.” The foreign ministers of Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia warned that the approval in the first reading “raises serious questions about the future of democracy in Georgia”.
The announcement to shelve the bill was welcomed by the EU office in Georgia. “We encourage all political leaders in Georgia to renew the reforms that support the European Union, in an inclusive and constructive manner,” the Union’s Twitter account said.