In Georgia, the Speaker of Parliament signs the law on “foreign influence”, which comes into force

It is a text that brought thousands of demonstrators into the streets. The Speaker of the Georgian Parliament, Shalva Papuashvili, announced, Monday June 3, that it had signed the law on“foreign influence” which sparked huge demonstrations. “Today I signed the Law on Transparency of Foreign Influence, the main aim of which is to strengthen the strength of Georgian social, economic and political systems,” said Shalva Papuashvili. This allows the text to come into force.

The law, inspired by a Russian repressive measure, imposes heavy administrative constraints on NGOs and media receiving at least 20% of their funding from abroad. Despite the president’s veto pro-European Salomé Zourabichvili, the text was definitively adopted on May 28 by Parliament, before which protest actions continued for almost two months. Both the European Union and the United States denounced this text and warned Tbilisi that it would move it away from its officially stated objective of joining the European Union.

Several media outlets and NGOs have also announced their intention to further challenge the text before the Georgian Constitutional Court, even if the latter is also controlled by the ruling party, the Georgian Dream, and the European Court of Human Rights. Some have announced that they will not comply with the constraints of the text. The Georgian Dream, while saying that it adheres to the objective of joining the EU and simply wants a greater “transparency” of financing the media and NGOs, has multiplied since the war in Ukraine the decisions bringing Georgia closer to Moscow.