Georgian non-governmental organizations (NGOs) have declared their disobedience to the government's law on foreign agents. It is called an analogue of the Russian law.
“Our lawyers will fight both domestically and in international courts. We will collect money to pay each other the fines that were imposed on us for loving Georgia and fighting for freedom. Our struggle is seen and supported by the entire civilized world. The passage of the Russian law threatens election monitoring, but we, Georgian civil society organizations, promise to protect the elections and the right to vote of every citizen. We will be with you at every polling station and will observe to protect free and fair elections!” the statement said.
On May 28, the Georgian parliament overrode the president’s veto of the bill “On Transparency of Foreign Influence.” The ruling Georgian Dream party voted for him.
President of the Council of Europe Charles Michel said that the issue of Georgia will be discussed at the next meeting of the European Council.
“In December, the European Council decided to grant candidate status to Georgia in the sense that Georgia will take appropriate steps and implement the necessary reforms. The parliament’s adoption of the “transparency law” is a step backward and takes Georgia further away from the path to joining the EU,” Michel said.
Georgian President Zurabishvili, in response to the decision of the parliament that finally approved the “Russian” law, called on the protesters to begin collecting signatures for a referendum.
“Young people here, after you collect signatures and bring them to me, the second important thing will be to protect the elections where necessary, because your mobilization, your half a million votes, as well as at least half a million votes of our diaspora “That’s what (the result of) the elections on October 26 will decide,” Zurabishvili addressed the demonstrators gathered near parliament.
