The former Soviet republic of 3.7 million people has been racked by protests and unrest in recent weeks as what the opposition has dubbed the “Russian law” has been debated. Even as lawmakers gathered to vote, thousands of people carrying Georgian flags gathered near the Parliament, confronting a phalanx of police.
President Salome Zourabichvili, a staunch critic of the ruling Georgian Dream party that behind the legislation, vetoed the bill May 18, describing it as “fundamentally Russian” and stating that it contradicted Georgia’s constitution and European democratic values.
The Georgian Dream party controls 83 of the assembly’s 150 seats, well above the half needed to overturn the veto. The bill will now go back to the president to sign, and if she refuses, it can be published by the Parliament speaker.
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Critics say the bill would be used to restrict independent media and clamp down on civil society and rights groups, many of which rely on foreign donors for funding.
U.S. and European officials have warned that enacting the law would damage Georgia’s hopes of moving closer to the West and joining the E.U.
In a statement after the vote to override the president’s veto, the European Commission said that it “deeply regrets” Parliament’s decision to pass the measure, saying the law “goes against EU core principles and values.” With the enactment of the law, expected in the coming days, Georgia would be backsliding in several key areas where progress was required to join the E.U., including taking steps against disinformation and polarization and adhering to the fundamental rights of civil society, the commission said.
“We urge the Georgian authorities to reverse this trend and to return firmly on the EU path. There is still time to change the dynamics — but a strong commitment by the governing authorities is needed,” the statement said, noting that Georgia’s progress was insufficient to move ahead in its membership aspirations.
“The law on foreign influence is not in line with EU values. If the law is enacted, it will impact Georgia’s EU path,” Josep Borrell, the E.U. foreign policy chief, wrote earlier on X, ahead of the vote.
Hundreds of riot police, many of them masked with balaclavas and clad in black, were deployed to the Parliament in the capital, Tbilisi, where thousands of Georgians gathered Tuesday evening to protest the decision.
Georgian Dream, whose honorary chair is reclusive billionaire oligarch Bidzina Ivanishvili, presented the bill “on Transparency of Foreign Influence” to force organizations that receive more than 20 percent of funding from abroad to label themselves as “organizations serving the interest of a foreign power.”
The Munich Security Report this year described Ivanishvili as a “pro-Russian oligarch” who “is held responsible for the country’s recent democratic backsliding and tilt away from the EU, against the wishes of the majority of the Georgian public.”
The government insists that the law is necessary to strengthen Georgian “sovereignty” and counter the influence of Western-funded nongovernmental organizations and media outlets.
It mimics a Russian law that has enabled authorities to declare any group or individual receiving foreign funding to be a “foreign agent.” The Russian law has been used extensively to harass civil society and curb dissent.
The conflict over the bill has simmered for weeks in Georgia, with punches thrown in Parliament and massive street protests in which riot police have used tear gas, water cannons and — according to witnesses — rubber bullets to intimidate protesters and break up demonstrations.
Yet Georgians, many of them students and young people, have returned to the streets again and again.
Zviad Kharazishvili, head of Georgia’s police special task force, said Tuesday that police had a list of people they had targeted for beatings.
“I don’t beat up the young, I beat up scoundrels,” he said in comments aired on multiple independent Georgian media channels, after two journalists questioned him while he was in his vehicle. “We have a list here,” he said, before rolling up his window and ordering the journalists to stop recording.
On Sunday, at Georgian independence day celebrations, Zourabichvili, whose powers are largely symbolic, said the nation’s path to independence and peace was through embracing Europe.
In 2008, Russia invaded Georgia and occupied 20 percent of its territory in a deeply traumatizing event for the country. Moscow then recognized the “independence” of the occupied Abkhazia and South Ossetia regions, using a playbook similar to what it has since used in the war against Ukraine.
Georgian Prime Minister Irakli Kobakhidze of Georgian Dream has repeatedly accused Zourabichvili of “high treason” and being a “traitor to this country,” a charge he repeated Sunday.
“It was the unity and reasonable steps of the people and their elected government that gave us the opportunity to maintain peace in the country for the past two years despite existential threats and multiple betrayals, including the betrayal of the president of Georgia,” Kobakhidze said in an independence day speech Sunday.
European officials, including Borrell and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, have condemned the intimidation and violence against protesters and civil society groups as unacceptable.
On Monday, Borrell called on Georgian Dream to withdraw the bill, warning that the E.U. Foreign Affairs Council would announce “appropriate responses” in June if the veto was overturned and the law passed.
But European leaders have limited means to persuade Georgia to shrug off Moscow’s influence and press ahead with democratic reforms. Any sanctions or moves to delay Georgia’s E.U. membership could alienate the country’s leaders and play into Russia’s hands.
Tuesday’s vote sets the scene for a summer of protests and confrontation over the designations of NGOs and media ahead of October elections.
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken last week called on Georgian leaders to “reconsider the draft law and take steps to move forward with their nation’s democratic and Euro-Atlantic aspirations.” He also announced travel sanctions against Georgian officials who are deemed “responsible for or complicit in undermining democracy in Georgia.”
The European Council granted Georgia E.U. candidate status in December “on the understanding [that] a number of steps are taken” that would advance democratic institutions, judicial reforms and the rule of law.
In a speech at a pro-government rally last month, the oligarch Ivanishvili assailed what he described as a “global party of war” that he insisted had “a decisive influence on NATO and the European Union and which only sees Georgia and Ukraine as cannon fodder.”
Foreign-funded NGOs, he insisted, were used by foreign forces to “appoint” a Georgian government.
Echoing Kremlin rhetoric, he blamed this dark “global force” for forcing confrontations that led to Russia’s 2008 invasion of Georgia and its full-scale 2022 invasion of Ukraine.
In the April speech, Ivanishvili also extolled a law proposed by Georgian Dream against LGBTQ+ “propaganda,” similar to homophobic laws passed in Russia, where the Russian Supreme Court outlawed the “international LGBT public movement.” The Georgian law would ban sex changes and adoption by same-sex couples, and prohibit gatherings “aimed at popularizing” LGBTQ+ relationships.
correction
An earlier version of this article incorrectly referred to Georgian President Salome Zourabichvili as a man. She is a woman. The article has been corrected.
