The current ruling party in Georgia, The Georgian Dream party has announced that the bill on “foreign agents” will be dropped.
This comes as people took to the streets of Georgia’s capital and staged protests against the bill over the past two days.
The demonstrations on both days got heated and violent as protesters clashed with police.
The Georgian Dream party specifically pointed to reducing “confrontation” as the reason for dropping the bill.
For those who haven’t been watching all of this unfold, the bill in question would require any Georgian organization to register as a “foreign agent” if the organization receives more than 20% of their funding from outside of the country.
This bill motivated many Georgians to protest as the proposed legislation was seen as limiting freedom of the press and also something that would push the country away from becoming an EU member.
These protests also took an anti-Russian stance as many believed the law to be a sign of Russian style governance.
Because of this, many Ukrainian flags were flown by protesters.
Even though the controversial bill has been dropped, protest organizers have stated that more demonstrations will be held today.
A huge new pro-EU protest officially started in front of the Georgian Parliament in Tbilisi 2 minutes ago.
All eyes on Georgia tonight.
— Visegrád 24 (@visegrad24) March 8, 2023