Ruling party head claims “radical opposition’, former public defender, “affiliated media” behind agents bill protests

Irakli Kobakhidze, the head of the ruling Georgian Dream party, on Tuesday “in addition to extremist youth political groups, opposition politicians, former public defender Nino Lomjaria, media outlets affiliated with the opposition, representatives of non-governmental organizations, as well as ordinary members of the “radical” United National Movement opposition party, had organized the protests in Tbilisi last week against the foreign agents bill. 

He said the groups had been engaged in the campaign of “liberal fascism”. 

In his interview last week, prime minister Irakli Garibashvili also accused the “radical wing” of the domestic opposition, as well as country’s foreign partners, of “inciting protests” against the bill that envisaged the registration of domestic NGOs and media organizations as foreign agents if they obtained more than 20 percent of their funding from abroad. 

The bill was rejected by the parliament last week amid large- scale protests.