TBILISI — The parliament of Georgia on May 1 voted to advance a controversial ‘foreign agent’ bill that has sparked weeks of mass protests in the capital, Tbilisi, and warnings from Brussels that it would damage Georgia’s hopes of becoming a member of the European Union.
Lawmakers voted 83 to 23 to adopt the bill in a second reading after a heated debate that included the expulsion of four opposition deputies and a fight between members representing opposition and majority parties.
The ruling party has said it wants to sign it into law by mid-May.
The vote followed overnight clashes between police and demonstrators over the foreign agents bill regarded by many as mirroring a law used by the Russian government to stifle dissent in that country.
The Interior Ministry issued a statement calling on the demonstrators not to block streets and not to try to picket the parliament. But the statement also said people would have an opportunity to protest on the street at the front and back of the building.
At the same time police officers belonging to special forces units took over the street at the back exit of the parliament, where a small group of people were protesting.
Police used tear gas and water cannons overnight to disperse an illegal demonstration and detained 63 people. Five protesters and six police officers were hospitalized with injuries.
Lawmakers Aleko Elisashvili and Levan Khabeishvili were injured in the clashes, Interior Ministry spokesman Aleksandre Darakhvelidze said.
Khabeishvili, chairman of the opposition United National Movement (UNM), was taken to a hospital and photographs showed he had bruises and cuts on his head and torso. The UNM said he had been “kidnapped” by police and claimed he was “helping an injured citizen” when he was detained.
An RFE/RL reporter at the scene recorded two incidents in which a masked individual punched demonstrators in the face.
European Union foreign policy chief Josep Borrell condemned the “violence against protesters” in a May 1 post on X, formerly Twitter.
“Georgia is an EU candidate country,” he wrote. “I call on its authorities to ensure the right to peaceful assembly.”
The Special Investigation Service announced that an investigation into excessive force against the demonstrators is ongoing.
The demonstration was the latest in a series of mass protests over the past two weeks against the legislation put forward by the ruling Georgian Dream party.
Critics call the bill “the Russian law,” and President Salome Zurabishvili, who has distanced herself from the policies of the ruling party, has promised to veto it if it is formally adopted in a third reading, as expected.
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Georgia returned to ‘Mother’.
Not Georgia, just the effing government. Whose days are numbered, I hope. 👿
Its more like poor Georgia has been overrun by ‘Mother”. Typical of the Moskali, that’s what they did to the Donbas in 1934 too and Crimea again in 1948. History repeats when we don’t learn or agree to hand over weapons in a “peace” deal.
Well, the very first guy to get kicked out should be Putin’s agent Ivanishvili, me thinks. 😈
Seems to me, the only way out is if the Georgians have their own Maiden Revolution and not only demonstrate but be committed like our brothers and sisters did. I don’t see that happening but I hope the Georgians learn to fight for their freedom.
Right, so true, Captain. But Georgians have to be realistic and achieve that on their own. The West didn’t help Eastern Germans in 1953,didn’t help Hungarians in 1956, didn’t help Ukrainians in 2014 and won’t help Georgians any time soon, I’m afraid. There will only be “thoughts and prayers”, but this shouldn’t discourage the resistance. They can succeed and their chances are better now than for the Maidan heroes, since Putin has hardly left any troops to spare. Courage! ✊🤨🇬🇪
They already are fighting.
You seem to be implying that they have no courage when history tells us the opposite.
Georgia has been invaded and attacked almost constantly for the best part of 2000 years. The Persians, Turks and Russia committed the worst atrocities, but there were others.
The notion that Georgia can defeat Russian occupation alone is absurd.
Towards the end of the SU, they took to the streets and were met with mass murder of civilians.
They took to the streets again in 2003 and succeeded in bringing down Shevardnadze.
They were brutally attacked again in 2008. They lost 20% of their land, but in those five days of war they managed to inflict considerable damage on the putinaZis.
No one ever helps Georgia. They took to the streets last year and forced the dictatorship to drop the “putler law.”
Now putler ordered again for it to be implemented.
The only option they have now is more street protests.
They know that putler mouthpiece Zakharova has threatened to bomb Tbilisi this time, but they go ahead anyway.
The opposition leader has already had his face smashed in by thug cops.
Georgia needs huge help from outside but as usual will get nothing.
“You seem to be implying that they have no courage when history tells us the opposite.”
Nope, not at all, you musunderstood me on that, Scradge. But if anyone believes the West will actively support a revolution in Georgia, I’m afraid that won’t happen. As I wrote, there’s sadly no convincing precedent for that. Time and again, movements for democracy have been left on their own when foreign help could have made a decisive difference. You agree with me on that, as your last sentence shows, so we shouldn’t raise false hopes. I honestly believe an uprising would have a chance, much like 2014, but not if its success depends on Western intervention. That’s sadly not realistic. ☹
I was replying to Cap’s comment. But maybe I clicked reply in the wrong place.
I could be cold hearted and I’m sorry I’m offending you Scradgel. All I remember in 2014 was no one gave a shit about Ukraine…300,000 people on the Maiden Countless more in other cities. People died so that others could live in freedom. Getting beat up doesn’t cut it for me. When Georgians put their lives to let other live…that’s a country deserving my deepest respect.
You seem to be extremely misinformed. Georgians are fighting; and dying, for Ukraine. Have been since 2014.
Georgians suffered genocide in Abkhazia in the early 90’s, because they fought against Yeltsin’s occupiers. They lost their homes, their livelihood, everything. The border with Abkhazia has been closed since then.
Do you know what nation provides by far the biggest contingent of the Ukrainian Foreign Legion? That is tiny Georgia. Have you not heard of the Georgian National Legion; led by Mamuka Mamulashvili? He and his father have fought solidly for 10 years without a break.
Read about them.
In addition, many Georgian volunteers fight for the regular Ukrainian army.
You are rubbishing the most pro-Ukraine/anti-Russian people in the world.
It seems that a mafia tentacle has a firm grip on Georgia’s pathetic politicians.