According to the Associated Press, a Georgian parliamentary committee on Monday (May 27) rejected the president's veto of a highly controversial “foreign agents” bill that lawmakers passed more than two weeks ago despite massive protests and international criticism.
Presidential veto overruled
The move by parliament's judicial committee paves the way for the ruling Georgian Dream party and its allies to vote in parliament's plenary session on Tuesday (May 28) to formally override President Salome Zourabishvili's veto.
On May 14, Georgia's parliament passed a highly controversial “foreign agents” bill, despite weeks of violent protests. Many, including the country's president, criticized the bill as similar to Russian laws that the Russian government has used to crack down on NGOs and independent media critical of the Kremlin.
The so-called “foreign agents” law currently requires organizations, including media, nonprofits and other NGOs, that get more than 20 percent of their funding from overseas to register as organizations “pursuing the interests of a foreign power.”
Zurabishvili, one of the bill's critics, vetoed the bill just days after it was passed in parliament by the ruling party and its allies, who had enough votes to override his veto.
Georgia's Independence Day marked by speeches and protests
The veto rejection by a Georgian parliamentary committee came a day after the country celebrated Independence Day, during which tensions rose as Prime Minister Irakli Kobakhidze and the president traded sharp accusations over the bill.
In his speech, Zourabichvili criticised the bill, which he said threatens the country's membership of the European Union.
“With the spectre of Russia looming over us, cooperation and reconciliation with Europe is the true way to preserve and strengthen our independence and peace,” the president said on Sunday (May 26) at a ceremony in Tbilisi marking the 106th anniversary of the country's declaration of independence from Moscow.
She added that “those who obstruct or undermine this path undermine and undermine our nation's peaceful and secure future and impede our path to becoming a full and free democratic member of the world.”
At the ceremony, the prime minister praised the country's development and criticized the president. “It was the unity and rational measures of the people and the elected government that gave us the opportunity to maintain peace in the country over the past two years, despite the existential crisis and numerous betrayals, including the betrayal of the President of Georgia,” Kobakhidze said.
Meanwhile, thousands of people took to the streets in Georgia's capital, Tbilisi, to protest against the proposed “foreign agents” bill, amid reports of clashes between demonstrators and police.
Reuters reported citing a poll that 3.7 million people in Georgia support joining the EU, but the 27-nation EU's external affairs arm said adopting the law would “negatively affect Georgia's progress towards EU membership.”
Last week, the United States announced travel sanctions against Georgian officials “responsible for or complicit in undermining democracy in Georgia”, a move that has since been criticised by the government in Tbilisi.
(With input from relevant agencies)