Ruling party withdraws foreign agents bill after mass protests

The ruling Georgian Dream party on Thursday said it had withdrawn a controversial foreign agents bill that was approved with its first reading earlier this week, triggering mass protests in the country’s capital. 

 

In a statement the party claimed the “radical wing” of the domestic opposition had managed to “mislead” the public over the draft law proposed by its former members who still remain in the parliamentary majority and that envisaged the registration of domestic NGOs and media organizations as foreign agents if they obtained more than 20 percent of their funds from abroad. 

 

The bill has been widely condemned by the international community along with domestic NGOs and the opposition, who expected it could affect the country’s civil sector and cause the “same undemocratic consequences as in Russia”. 

 

The GD claimed the decision over the withdrawal had been made after consultations inside the party and the authors of the bill from the People’s Power movement “without any preconditions”. 

 

“We should be most careful about peace, tranquility and economic development in our country, as well as Georgia’s progress on the path of European integration. Therefore, it is necessary for the energy of each of our fellow citizens to be spent not on confrontation, but on developing the country in the right direction”, the GD said. 

 

It noted after turmoil was eased, they would “better explain to the public” that the bill “had nothing to do with the Russian law” and what its genuine goals were. 

 

Hundreds of Georgians took to the street over the past several days protesting the bill, demanding the parliament to drop it.