Parliament in Georgia passes controversial law

Despite massive protests, Georgia’s parliament passed the law on “foreign influence”. What lies ahead for the country now.

Even after four weeks of protest, the demonstrators in Georgia show no signs of tiredness. The third and final reading of the bill against “foreign influence”, which began at midday, was once again accompanied by hundreds of people with whistles and shouts of “Sakartvelo”, the native language name for Georgia. The MPs approved the plan with 84 votes in favor and 30 against – the people on the streets of Tbilisi will also protest the next steps until it comes into force.

Now President Salome Zurabishvili has the floor. It can demand changes to the law or reject it entirely. She has ten days to veto it, but she has already made it clear that she will decide quickly – with a complete rejection. Zurabishvili is on the side of the demonstrators, even if it was the ruling Georgian Dream (GT) party that nominated her as a presidential candidate six years ago.

However, since a reform that came into force in 2013, the head of state has little power. The ruling party can override Zurabishvili’s veto with its majority, as has happened several times in this legislative period.

Focus on election observers

If the law comes into force in the coming weeks, it will quickly become clear whether the governing party is actually interested in transparency or, as feared, in restricting civil society and maintaining power in the parliamentary elections in October. The governing party is particularly focusing on local election observation organizations, which are supported by international donors and had already criticized numerous irregularities in the 2020 elections.

This includes the International Society for Fair Elections and Democracy (ISFED). It was founded in 1995, played an important role in the changes of power in 2003 and 2021 and currently receives funding from, among others, the European Union and the US organization USAID.

Director Nino Dolidze does not want to register ISFED as an organization under “foreign influence” and knows the board of directors is behind him, as she said in the tagesschau.de-Interview said. It is possible that ISFED and other organizations that refuse this will not be allowed to monitor voter registration and attend polling stations. The authorities could also exert pressure with searches and fines.

Uncertainty about maintaining power

The governing party does not need to worry too much about maintaining power: the surveys of the past few months show a comfortable lead over the opposition parties; most of them would miss out on entering parliament given the five percent hurdle.

But a change in the electoral system makes the outcome more uncertain than before, explains Dolidze. Until now, parliamentary seats were distributed according to majority and proportional representation. The majority voting system, which previously always favored the incumbent party, was abolished. With proportional representation, the governing party feels less confident about the outcome of the election. This reform was negotiated as a compromise with the opposition through the mediation of EU Council President Charles Michel.

A fair electoral system is one of the EU’s conditions for the next step towards accession, which the ruling party had previously advocated in order not to go against the majority of the population who want EU membership.

Stop sign for the government

But with the passing of the law on “foreign influence” the maneuvering will come to an end, EU politicians have made that clear.

“You just want to rule through and – you have to make this clear to those in charge now – that has consequences,” says SPD member of the Bundestag Michael Roth, who is currently visiting Tbilisi as chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee. The EU candidate status was not a generous gift to the government, but rather an encouragement to civil society. “As of today, the advance of trust is no longer worth anything,” said Roth tagesschau.de-Interview.

Roth wants the EU to put up a stop sign for actions that are painful for those responsible. “You know, sanctions have to be decided unanimously. With Hungary, with Mr. Orban, the Georgians have a nightmare (commentary allusion to “Georgian Dream”, the name of the governing party, editor’s note) yes an ally in the EU and sitting in the Council. But the Commission should examine what is within its options.” Roth, however, would like to refrain from suspending visa liberalization because it would punish the people in Georgia.

It would also be conceivable that Georgia’s status as a safe country of origin would be revoked. “If opposition members can no longer move freely here and if this continues consistently and brutally, namely putting pressure on family members. If the abstract threats against LGBTQI now turn into concrete discrimination, including through laws, then we will certainly have to do it again check,” demands Roth.

Attacks on opposition members

Many opposition politicians carry pepper spray with them to protect themselves from attacks, as have happened several times in the past few days. ISFED director Dolidze shows photos of her apartment door. There she found posters with her likeness and the slogans “traitor” and “foreign agent” in the morning. Video recordings showed that three men made the graffiti that night. The police did not come despite repeated calls. The same thing has happened to other prominent government critics in recent days. Several were also injured.

Dolidze, mother of two minor children, refuses to be intimidated. She talks about her neighbors who went to the demonstrations out of anger over the poster campaign. This is the kind of mood that affects the entire population. She has never seen as many people at a demonstration in Georgia as took to the streets over the Europe Day weekend.

However, many fear a scenario like that in Belarus, where dictator Alexander Lukashenko brutally cracked down on resistance to the fraudulent presidential election in 2020. But another outcome would also be conceivable: that the ruling party creates so much resistance with its policies that the number and endurance of the protesters ultimately exhausts the police – as was the case in neighboring Armenia in 2018, where a peaceful transfer of power was achieved.