In Georgia, the president refuses to sign the law restricting the rights of LGBT+ people

The Georgian president, pro-European, displays her opposition to the conservative government in power in the country. Salomé Zourabichvili refused to sign a law restricting the rights of LGBT+ people, her services announced on Wednesday October 2, specifying that the president had not however vetoed it. The President of Parliament having the power to sign a law in the event of refusal by the presidency, this text, strongly criticized in the West, should therefore nevertheless be able to enter into force.

Adopted in September by deputies of the ruling Georgian Dream party, this legislation on “family values” and against the “propaganda of homosexual relations”, similar to what exists in Russia, also restricts “rallies and demonstrations”.

Rights groups have particularly criticized language equating incest and homosexuality, while the European Union said the law “attack on the fundamental rights of Georgians” and risked “to reinforce the stigmatization and discrimination of a part of the population”.

The country is called to the polls on October 26 for legislative elections seen as crucial. The Georgian Dream party, with conservative and anti-Western rhetoric, is accused of endangering Georgia’s rapprochement with the United States and Europe. Thus, its detractors accuse it of turning towards Moscow, while the country aims to join NATO and the EU.

Georgia was shaken in the spring by massive demonstrations against another law, this time against“foreign influence” and it also inspired by a repressive Russian text.