Georgia’s ruling party wants to withdraw the controversial “foreign influence agents” law. But that alone was not enough for the opposition. Now the government is making another concession.
After two days of massive protests, Georgia’s ruling party announced on Thursday morning that it would withdraw the law on “foreign influence agents”. The opposition celebrated this as a victory for the demonstrators, and the EU reacted with relief: “We welcome the ruling party’s announcement,” said the EU delegation in Georgia. But the jubilation is mixed with distrust of the government in Georgian civil society. Thousands of demonstrators therefore gathered once more on Thursday evening in front of the parliament in Tbilisi.
Among other things, they called for a special session of parliament to reject the law. Because the bill can no longer simply be withdrawn following it was approved in the first reading on Tuesday. It must be rejected at second reading. Only during the course of the day did the parliamentary group of the ruling party, the Georgian Dream, announce that it was prepared to go this route, but left the timetable open. While the rally in front of Parliament was still going on in the evening, it was announced that a special session of Parliament had been scheduled for Friday followingnoon, at which the “agents law” would be formally buried.
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What: FAZ
