The "Foreign Agents" bill that Georgian lawmakers are set to pass brought thousands of Georgians to the streets on Tuesday, March 7. This text is denounced by critics of power as a tool of intimidation against the media and NGOs.
Police used tear gas and water cannons against protesters who had gathered outside parliament after MPs passed the bill at first reading, according to footage from independent Pireli TV. TV. During the largely peaceful rally, at least one protester threw a Molotov cocktail at a cordon of riot police, according to the same source.
The demonstrators were protesting against this law which stipulates that organizations that receive more than 20% of their funding from abroad must register as "foreign agents", or face fines. As Reporters Without Borders reminds us, this text recalls a similar law adopted in Russia in 2012 and which the Kremlin has widely used to repress the media and opposition organizations or simple critical voices.
The president supports the protesters
Georgian President Salome Zurabishvili spoke on television from New York to say she was "on the side" of the protesters. "You represent free Georgia today which sees its future in Europe and which will not let anyone rob it of that future," she added, calling for the law to be "repealed" and promising to stamp it. veto.
However, this veto could be overcome by the ruling Georgian Dream party, which controls more than half of the seats in Parliament. Georgia, a small ex-Soviet republic in the Caucasus, has ambitions to join the EU and NATO, but several government moves have recently cast a shadow over those aspirations and raised doubts about its ties to the Kremlin.
The U.S. Embassy in Georgia denounced the law passed on first reading, calling it a "dark day for Georgian democracy." "Parliament's passage of these Kremlin-inspired laws is incompatible with the clear desire of the Georgian people to integrate into Europe and develop democratically," she said in a Facebook post.
"The pursuit of these laws will harm Georgia's relationship with its strategic partners," the embassy said, although the United States also has a "foreign agents" law.
