Renewed protests in Georgia: It could get bloody
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In Georgia, people are protesting against the Russian-style “agent” law. There could be brutal police violence.
Pro-Western demonstration on April 15 in the Georgian capital Tbilisi Photo: Shakh Aivazov/ap
You can rely on the Georgians. Thousands of demonstrators are once again standing in front of the parliament building in the capital Tbilisi. Their unbridled anger is directed against a bill on “foreign agents.”
Ostensibly it is a transparency initiative by the ruling party Georgian Dream (KO) regarding financial support for non-governmental organizations from abroad. Are you kidding me? Are you serious when you say that. In reality, this regulation based on the Russian model is an instrument to curb and ultimately silence an alert and, in some cases, extremely critical civil society.
But this project could backfire – as it did in March of last year. The government finally had to drop a first variant of the agent law after nationwide protests. Incidentally, this “victory of the street” was one of the reasons why Georgia received the EU candidate status that many people in the South Caucasus republic were eagerly awaiting in December 2023.
The young generation
And that’s exactly what it’s all about now: about a European future for the country, which representatives of the younger generation in particular don’t want to miss. But the KO is currently on the way to losing this perspective.
Instead of finally getting to work on the Brussels list of tasks – which includes, among other things, passing laws to protect individual rights – the government is veering more and more towards Russia and authoritarianism for the sake of maintaining its own power and six months before the parliamentary elections.
But Russia as a model has long since had its day for many Georgians. And so there are likely to be more protests in the coming days – even at the price of becoming a victim of brutal police violence or ending up in prison. It could be hot in Georgia – and not just this spring.
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