Parliament of Georgia rejects foreign agents bill

The Georgian Parliament rejected the bill "On Transparency of Foreign Influence" in the second reading. 35 parliamentarians voted against the bill, 1 deputy voted in favor, and 58 abstained.

The vote was technical, it was done without preliminary debate, the meeting ended within a quarter of an hour.

In addition to this, the People's power public movement, which initiated the second bill on the registration of foreign agents, withdrew it from the Georgian Parliament.

In a speech to the media, the head of the Georgian Dream, Irakli Kobakhidze said that even in the rejected status, the bills helped the authorities raise the topic of negative foreign influence on Georgia, carried out through NGOs, and expressed gratitude to those who voted "yes" at the first reading.

He stated that the population saw how NGOs were engaged in anti-state activity, and stressed that the role of a foreign agent did not bring any benefits to a citizen or organization. Kobakhidze also said that the riots caused by the adoption of the first bill in the first reading exposed the forceful, illegal tools of Mikheil Saakashvili's United National Movement, with the help of which the party intended to take power from the Georgian Dream.