Georgia President Stands with Tbilisi Demonstrators

Tbilisi, March 7 – Georgian President Salome Zurabishvili expressed support for the demonstrators in Tbilisi and announced that she would veto the foreign agents law.

“I am with you, because today you represent free Georgia, Georgia that sees its future in Europe and will not give anyone the right to take this future … This law should be repealed in any way. It should not be sent to the presidential administration,” Zurabishvili said in a video statement distributed by the presidential administration. The Venice Commission knows very well what kind of law this is. I said from the beginning that I would oppose this law and I would do it.”

Earlier, the presidential administration reported that Zurabishvili, who is on a visit to the United States, canceled all meetings and planned to make an appeal to the people of Georgia amid the ongoing protests.

According to her, this law distances Georgia from the European Union and anyone who supports it violates the country’s constitution.

And in Tbilisi, in front of the parliament building, a protest rally has taken place since the morning, the demonstrators oppose the adoption of the foreign agents bill, which was passed in the evening in the first reading. Earlier, the Georgian parliament received a bill on transparency of foreign influence, according to which it is proposed to create a registry in the country for non-governmental organizations, media and entities that receive funding from a foreign state. Representatives of the ruling Georgian Dream party, which represents the parliamentary majority, told reporters that they intend to support the new bill, and if President Salome Zurabishvili opposes it, the deputies will try to bypass it. Opponents believe the bill is a “Russian version” and isolates the country from the European Union.