Georgia MPs Trade Blows Over ‘Foreign Agent’ Law Again

TBILISI: Lawmakers in Georgia traded blows in Parliament for the second time this month, with a female member of parliament hitting a male colleague with a water bottle on Monday during discussions of a contentious “foreign agents” law.

Video posted by local media showed opposition member of parliament Khatia Dekanoidze rapping Guram Macharashvili over the head with what appeared to be a plastic bottle as he shouted and wagged his finger at her.

Fistfight Breaks Out In Georgian Parliament Over Controversial Law

In Georgia, MPs came to blows while discussing a controversial new proposed law, which would label local media outlets and other legal entities as “agents of foreign influence” if they derive
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— ☦️Jacob🇷🇺Charite☦️ Иагов (@jaccocharite) March 6, 2023

Georgia faces more protests this week over the bill, which would force organisations receiving more than 20% of their funding from abroad to register as foreign agents.

Opponents have criticised it as Russian-inspired and authoritarian, while the governing Georgian Dream party said it is needed to ensure that funding of NGOs is transparent. The law is due to receive the second of three readings on Tuesday.

The European Union has repeatedly said the bill will jeopardise Georgia’s path towards EU membership. Russian President Vladimir Putin’s spokesman has said that Moscow has nothing to do with the legislation.

An official live broadcast of the session was shut off shortly after Monday’s incident, in which Macharashvili, a Georgian Dream MP, was unhurt. Local media said 14 opposition MPs were expelled from the meeting.

Georgian lawmakers came to blows during a previous debate earlier in the month.

A pro-government rally in support of the bill was set to take place outside parliament on Monday night, while an opposition protest was planned in a city park some three miles (5 km) away.

A senior ruling party official cited by local media said the party was helping its supporters with travel costs and transport to attend its demonstration, while insisting that they would only be there of their own volition.

Georgia’s President Salome Zourabichvili, who opposes the law but whose post is mostly ceremonial, described the pro-government rally on social media site X as “a ‘Putintype’ action: civil servants ‘bused’ to Tbilisi to applaud (the)ruling party’s decisions”.

Yesterday, Day 15 of massive spontaneous protests against “Russian law” and for Georgia’s European future. Today, a “Putintype ” action: civil servants “bused” to Tbilisi to applaud ruling party’s decisions.
Real Georgia is free Georgia! European Georgia! pic.twitter.com/NGUqZ9mEqu

— Salome Zourabichvili (@Zourabichvili_S) April 29, 2024

Central streets in the capital of Georgia were choked with buses carrying the demonstrators, while screens and floodlights were set up every few hundred metres along the length of the main Rustaveli Avenue in preparation for the rally.
(REUTERS)