The Messenger
March 10, 2023

Georgian Dream Withdraws ‘Foreign Agents’ Bill Due to High Public Pressure

The joint statement of the political council of the ruling party Georgian Dream, bill initiator People’s Power party and the Parliamentary majority has been published, saying they have withdrawn the bill after mass protests.

According to the statement, the ruling party is waiting for the ’emotional response’ to subside, so they can explain the importance of the bill to the public and announced that they will start having meetings with citizens to inform the public of the ‘truth’ [see below on quotation mark].

Georgian Dream blamed the ‘radical’ opposition for misleading the public by presenting the bill to them in a ‘negative light’. [Radical in inverted comma, as though such behavior if aimed at toppling the governments of the U.S. and its NATO allies would not be called such in earnest.]

“We would like to inform the public that consultations were held between the political council of Georgian Dream, People’s Power and members of the parliamentary majority regarding the ongoing political processes surrounding the law ‘On Transparency of Foreign Influence.’

“We see that the adopted draft law has caused differences of opinion in society. The machine of lies was able to present the bill in a negative light and mislead a certain part of the public. The false label of Russian law was attached to the draft law, and its adoption in the first reading was presented as a departure from the European course in the eyes of a part of the public.

“In addition, the radical forces were able to involve some of the youth in illegal activities…..”

====

Civil Georgia
March 10, 2023

President Zurabishvili Gives Interview to Bloomberg

As part of her ongoing visit to the US, on March 9 President Zurabishvili gave an interview to Bloomberg. She spoke about events in Georgia and Georgia’s EU aspirations.

***

Asked whether the fact that the law had gotten this far had damaged Georgia’s position with the EU, the President noted that she thinks that on the contrary, people’s reaction to this unilateral decision by the Georgian Dream majority-parliament showed that “when the society is united they can defeat even the majority that is in the Parliament, and that’s what is important.”

She went on to say that it is not clear and “less and less [so] in the recent time “what the position of authorities is,” because in spite of the declared goal of European integration “they suddenly take steps that are going in the other direction. So their position is not clear. Georgia’s position is very clear.”

***

She added: “We cannot second guess why political leaders take certain decisions, whether it’s for electoral aims in the future, whether they have some connections with Russia, whether we think that Russia is an easier partner when you are less democratic than the European Union, that’s for you to guess and [for] me to find out.”