ruling party withdraws controversial ‘foreign agents’ bill

He had triggered two days of massive demonstrations in the country. In Georgia, the ruling party announced Thursday, March 9, the withdrawal of the controversial bill on “foreign agents”. “As a party of government responsible to every member of society, we have decided to unconditionally withdraw this bill that we support”the Georgian Dream party said in a statement posted on its website.

The announcement comes a day after massive protests in the capital Tbilisi saw police use tear gas canisters and water cannons to disperse tens of thousands of people gathered near parliament. Flags of Georgia and the European Union were notably waved. “No to Russian law!”chanted the crowd.

A text similar to a Russian law

The protest movement was triggered by the adoption on Tuesday at first reading of che draft which provided that organizations receiving more than 20% of their funding from abroad would be obliged to register as“foreign agents”subject to fines. He recalled a similar law adopted in Russia in 2012 and which the Kremlin has used extensively to crack down on media and opposition organizations or simple critical voices. On Wednesday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said he wanted “democratic success” for the protesters. For their part, the United States called on the Georgian authorities to respect the “peaceful protests”.

In its statement, the Georgian Dream party believes that the bill has been “deceptively misrepresented”adding that he would launch public consultations to “explain better” the purpose of this text. The party in power is therefore not completely closing the door to a future return of this bill to Parliament.

The former Soviet republic, marked by a war against Russia in 2008, aims to join the EU and NATO. But several recent measures by the current government, such as the bill on “foreign agents”have cast doubt on the maintenance of pro-Western aspirations, with the opposition accusing him of supporting Moscow.