Georgia’s President Vetoes Foreign Agent Law After ‘Family Purity Day’

By Stefan J. Bos, Chief International Correspondent Worthy News

TBLISI/BUDAPEST (Worthy News) – Georgia’s president has vetoed a “foreign agent” law after the most massive protests in years and even clashes in the parliament of the former Soviet republic.

President Salome Zourabichvili had said she would reject the legislation as it forces media and other groups to register as “organizations serving the interests of a foreign power” if they receive over 20 percent of their funding from abroad.

Protesters fear the law, which seems a copy of similar legislation in Russia, undermines the South Caucasus country’s bid to join the European Union.

Zourabichvili called her veto “symbolic,” but it was another step in the conflict between the country’s pro-Western opposition, which Zourabichvili supports, and the pro-Russian Georgian Dream party in power since 2012.

In televised remarks on Saturday, the president said her veto was “legally justified.” “This law cannot be subject to any change, improvement, and embellishment, and thus, it’s a very simple veto. This law must be withdrawn, ” she stressed.

Georgia’s government insists that the proposed law is intended to promote transparency and curb what it deems harmful foreign influence in the country of 3.7 million.

Many Georgian journalists and activists dispute this characterization, saying they are already subject to audit and monitoring requirements.

RESTRICT DEBATE

They claim the bill’s true goal is to “stigmatize” them and “restrict debate ahead of the October parliamentary elections.

A brawl broke out Tuesday when the bill’s final version passed through parliament.

Outside, tens of thousands of protesters shut down a major intersection in the Georgian capital of Tbilisi, and protesters gathered again outside the parliament on Wednesday

Crowds, many of them young people, have filled Tbilisi’s streets on a near-nightly basis for over a month to voice their opposition to the “foreign agent” law they view as authoritarian and Russian-inspired.

The United States and the European Union have warned the ruling Georgian Dream party to drop the bill, saying it could impact Georgia’s EU integration.

Dozens of demonstrators have been detained or hospitalized since mid-April after riot police deployed water cannons and fired tear gas canisters and stun grenades to disperse the crowds.

However, the government did support the “Family Purity Day” on Friday, when thousands of Georgians led by Orthodox Christian clerics marched through the same areas in Tbilisi where other protesters had faced police.

GOVERNMENT HOLIDAY

Declared an official government holiday this year, the “Day of Family Purity and Respect for Parents,” as it is known in full, celebrates what the Georgian Orthodox Church calls the country’s “family values” of marriage between a man and a woman.

Critics view it as an attack on the LGBTQ+ community and a government attempt to unite more voters behind its policies before upcoming elections.

LGBTQ+ rights are a contentious topic in Georgia, a traditionally Orthodox Christian country of 3.7 million people.

Georgian Dream introduced a bill in March that would ban sex changes and adoption by same-sex couples.

Prime Minister Irakli Kobakhidze and parliamentary Speaker Shalva Papuashvili were among those marching in Tbilisi.

The march ended at the capital’s Trinity Cathedral, where Kobakhidze praised the event for “protecting the country’s identity, language and faith.”

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