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An estimated 50,000 people marched peacefully in heavy rain in the Georgian capital Tbilisi on Saturday night after the US said parliamentarians must choose between Kremlin-style laws or the Euro-Atlantic democratic path they have taken.
The march was the latest in a series of public protests against the “foreign agents” bill. which would require media and commercial organizations receiving more than 20% of their funding from outside the country to register as “agents of foreign influence”.
Critics fear it will stifle the press and NGOs. The bill, which passed a second reading in parliament this month, has been branded a Russian law by critics who liken it to legislation introduced by the Kremlin after its invasion of Ukraine designed to silence political dissent in the media and elsewhere.
“We are deeply troubled by the retreat of democracy in Georgia,” said White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan. wrote to X.
“Georgian parliamentarians face a critical choice – whether to support the Euro-Atlantic aspirations of the Georgian people or adopt a Kremlin-style law on foreign agents that goes against democratic values,” he said. We are with the Georgian people.
Georgia is one of nine countries actively trying to join the EU, with leaders having agreed official candidate status in the former Soviet state last December.
Saturday’s crowd waved Georgian, EU and some Ukrainian flags and, in a break with the past, included more elderly protesters, as well as many of the young people who have thronged the streets over the past month.
“The government must listen to the free people of Georgia,” said one protester in her 30s, who went by the name of Nino, waving a large Georgian flag and leading one of three columns that gathered in the city center, blocking roads and filling the cobblestones heart of the old city of Tbilisi.
“We want to get into European Union with our proud nation and our dignity,” she said.
Earlier this month, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen urged Georgia to stay on the course of democracy after riot police dispersed protests against the bill with rubber bullets, tear gas, stun grenades and water cannons.
“I am following the situation in Georgia with great concern and condemn the violence on the streets of Tbilisi.” The Georgian people want a European future for their country. Georgia is at a crossroads. It has to stay the course on the way to Europe,” von der Leyen wrote to X.
Drone footage posted on social media by journalist Ïne Back Ïversen showed the capital flooded with people in what she said was perhaps the largest of the daily protests that began three weeks ago.
🇬🇪 World, are you still watching? Tonight was perhaps the largest gathering of Georgians marching in Tbilisi against Russian violations and laws that have infiltrated the Georgian government! Please watch, share, stand with the brave people of Georgia!🇬🇪 #NotOnRussianLaw https://t.co/D7P98pOqfM pic.twitter.com/BD9Q3XMWyd
— Їne Back Їversen (@IneBackIversen) May 11, 2024
Like most EU candidates, Georgia faces a difficult path to accession that could last a decade or more. But his aspirations will suffer a serious setback if the new law is passed as a free and independent press is one of the many prerequisites for opening accession talks
The ruling Georgian Dream party said the legislation was needed to “protect society from pseudo-liberal ideology and its inevitable harmful consequences”.
The government will begin committee hearings on the third and final reading of the bill on Monday.
The crisis has pitted Georgian Dream against a coalition of opposition parties, civil society, celebrities and the country’s president, with mass protests shutting down much of central Tbilisi almost every night for more than a month.
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