Georgia's ruling party, in the face of two days of violent protests and sharp criticism from the West, says it is withdrawing its controversial "foreign agents" legislation from parliament.
"As a party of government responsible to every member of society, we have decided to unconditionally withdraw this bill that we supported," the Georgian Dream party said in a statement on its website on March 9.
The initial protests erupted as lawmakers took up the controversial foreign agents law on March 7. The proposed legislation, which is backed by the ruling Georgian Dream party and was approved in a hastily called first reading on March 7, would force civil society organizations that receive more than 20 percent of their funding from abroad to be classified as foreign agents.
Some have likened the bill to legislation passed in Russia, where all organizations or individuals receiving financial support from abroad can be declared as foreign agents, a label that stigmatizes them and forces them to submit to audits. Later revisions of the law targeted foreign-funded media.
The bill sparked an outpouring of anger among Georgians that resulted in two days of protests that were met by security forces and police with volleys of tear gas, stun grenades, and water cannons.
Protesters were heard chanting "No to the Russian law" and singing the Georgian, Ukrainian, and EU anthems. One banner held during the renewed protests, which took place on International Women’s Day, said: "Women against total control."
Dozens of people were detained, and the Interior Ministry said at least 50 police officers had been injured in the clashes.
Georgian Dream said in its statement the bill had been "represented in a bad light and in a misleading way," adding that it would launch public consultations to "better explain" the law's purpose.
Officials from opposition parties, speaking after the bill was withdrawn, said protests would continue until the government formally denounced the foreign agents bill altogether and released all those detained during protests. Georgia's opposition has often criticized Georgian Dream for being too closely aligned with Moscow, which backs separatists in the breakaway Georgian regions of Abkhazia and South Ossetia.
Wedged in the Caucasus between Russia, Turkey, Armenia, and Azerbaijan, the country of 3.7 million people has experienced several bouts of political upheaval since leaving the Soviet Union in 1991 to become independent.
"The protest is not just about the bill, but about the Russian nature of the Georgian Dream. There is no trust towards them or their word, and track record serves as the empirical proof. There is no legal mechanism to withdraw the draft," Helen Khoshtaria, founder of the Droa party, said on Twitter.
Ilhan Kyuchyuk, a member of the European Parliament for the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe (ALDE) added: "I welcome the pledge of the Georgian Dream to withdraw their dangerous Kremlin-inspired 'foreign agents' law, but we will keep watching until it is actually withdrawn in Parliament."
President Salome Zurabishvili had said she will veto the bill, although parliament could have overriden her veto.
The introduction of the legislation prompted rebukes of Georgia from several corners, including diplomats from the European Union and the United States.
The EU's delegation to Georgia said in a tweet that it welcomed the announcement by Georgian Dream, which it had previously said raised serious questions about the prospects of democracy in Georgia.
"We encourage all political leaders in Georgia to resume pro-EU reforms, in an inclusive & constructive way and in line with the 12 priorities for Georgia to achieve candidate status," it said.
Georgia has been moving toward joining the European Union, but EU officials said the foreign agents law would complicate the country's membership path. Last year, the bloc declined to grant candidate status to Georgia, citing stalled political and judicial reforms.
Reuters contributed some information for this report.
