Tbilisi, Georgia –
Georgia’s parliament on Tuesday initially backed a controversial “foreign agents” law backed by the ruling party, which critics say represents an authoritarian shift in the South Caucasus country.
The bill would require any organization that receives more than 20% of its funding from abroad to register as a “foreign agent” or face significant fines. Critics say it recalls a 2012 Russian law that has since been used to crack down on civil society.
The law passed without a hitch in its so-called first parliamentary reading on Tuesday, Georgian media reported.
Hundreds of demonstrators protesting the law gathered outside the Parliament building in central Tbilisi, some carrying European Union and US flags. Under a strong police presence, many shouted: “No to the Russian law”.
Georgian Prime Minister Giorgi Garibashvili announced his support for the law in Berlin earlier on Tuesday, saying the proposed provisions on foreign agents meet “European and global standards”.
“The future of our country does not and will not belong to foreign agents and servants of foreign countries,” he said.
The ruling Georgian Dream party, which is seeking Georgia’s accession to the European Union, last month announced its support for the Foreign Agents Law. She has accused critics of the bill of opposing the Georgian Orthodox Church, one of the country’s most respected and influential institutions.
Police officers try to put out a fire as protesters throw Molotov cocktails during a rally against the ‘foreign agents’ law in Tbilisi, Georgia, March 7, 2023.
On Monday, a hearing by the committee on the law ended in a physical brawl in Parliament when the chairman of the Legislature’s Judiciary Committee apparently physically hit the leader of the opposition United National Movement, which opposes the law.
President Salome Zurabishvili, elected as a Georgian Dream candidate, has announced that she will veto the law, which she says threatens Georgia’s hopes of joining the EU. Parliament can override their veto.
More than 60 civil society organizations and media have said they will not comply with the law if it comes into force.
The Georgian government has been criticized in recent years by observers who say the country is drifting towards authoritarianism. In June, the EU refused to grant candidate status to Georgia alongside Moldova and Ukraine, citing deadlocked political and judicial reforms.
