Thousands are protesting against the reintroduction of the draft law, which accuses “foreign-funded organizations.”
Riot police Solved The crowd descended on Tuesday at the parliament building, after more than 5,000 demonstrators demonstrated in the streets of Tbilisi for a second day over a Russian-style bill on foreign agents. Crowds in Georgia took to the streets as the parliament of the Soviet successor state debated the controversial bill.
This proposal, which also sounds familiar in Hungary, would stipulate in law that organizations that receive more than 20 percent of their funding from abroad must register themselves as foreign clients. The law has a good chance of being accepted by Parliament, which is controlled by the ruling Georgian Dream party and its allies. Meanwhile, protesters believe this legislation harms Georgia's aspirations to join the European Union.
According to Reuters, among the police officers who dispersed the demonstrators were firearms and called on the demonstrators to leave the square. Coverage also noted that mass dispersal agents similar to pepper spray were also used against them.
As a result, demonstrators fled the area, and the back of the building was also evacuated of demonstrators, although many remained at other access points to Parliament. Eyewitnesses reported that Georgian police arrested several people. The demonstrators then joined other demonstrators who gathered throughout the day on Rustaveli Avenue, one of the city's main transportation routes.
Gros Alum unexpectedly reintroduced the bill in April, more than a year after, due to similar demonstrations, it stopped adopting the law. The bill must pass three readings in Parliament, then likely a fourth vote to pass it Salome Zurabishvili Veto power for the president who criticizes the Georgian Dream and opposes the bill.
Western countries, including the United States, Great Britain and Germany, urged Georgia not to pass the bill. However, the pro-Russian government claims that the law is necessary for the sake of transparency and to act against “pseudo-liberal values” imposed on it from abroad.
