The Georgian Parliament intends to override the veto on the law on “foreign agents” on May 28

The parliamentary majority, formed by the ruling Georgian Dream party of billionaire Bidzina Ivanishvili, intends to override the presidential veto on the law “On Transparency of External Influence” during a plenary session after discussion at the parliamentary bureau and endorsement by the parliamentary committee on legal issues. Presumably this will happen on May 28. The correspondent of Radio Liberty was told this by the parliamentary staff with reference to documents received by the parliamentary office.

On Monday, May 20, Prime Minister Irakli Kobakhidze said, opening a regular government meeting, that the country’s president, Salome Zurabishvili, by vetoing the bill, “closed any opportunity for discussion,” although, according to him, “the ruling party was ready to continue discussing the document following the conclusion of the Council of Europe’s Venice Commission on Constitutional Law.”

Former Georgian ambassador to the EU, member of the opposition parliamentary faction “Lelo” Salome Samadashvili told a RS correspondent that the head of state “did absolutely right” by not entering, in her words, into pointless discussions on certain provisions of the bill, “which is totally contrary to the constitution and pro-European vector of the country’s development.”

It will not be difficult for the parliamentary majority to override the president’s veto. For this, a simple majority from the list of deputies, that is, 76 votes, is sufficient. While the ruling party, together with its allied conservative faction “Power of the People,” as shown by all three votes for the bill, has 84 mandates in the legislative body.

President of the European Council Charles Michel, French President Emanuel Macron, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, the British Foreign Office, a group of American congressmen and many other partners of the Caucasian country called on the Georgian authorities not to override the president’s veto “to preserve Georgia on a pro-Western path of development.”

Many Western representatives made it clear that if the law is finally approved, sanctions could be imposed against government officials and deputies from the Georgian Dream, as well as the honorary chairman of the party, Bidzina Ivanishvili.

However, Parliament Speaker Shalva Papuashvili, during a briefing on Monday, confirmed the determination of the parliamentary majority to overcome the veto of the head of state and called it “unacceptable” when the EU “itself passes a law against external influence” and such laws “are already in force in the USA, France, Great Britain, Israel,” but “for some reason Georgia is prohibited from having a similar law.”

Papuashvili even accused the EU of “secretly financing political parties in Georgia contrary to the current legislation,” which, according to him, was one of the main reasons for the initiation of this law by the ruling party.

The opposition believes that the law actually repeats the norms of the Russian law on “foreign agents” and also contradicts the country’s constitution. This opinion is also shared by one of the authors of the current constitution, member of parliament of several convocations Vakhtang Khmaladze. He told Radio Liberty that even after the parliamentary majority overrides the presidential veto, opposition deputies and the head of state herself will be able to appeal the law to the Constitutional Court and demand its suspension until the Constitutional Court makes a final verdict.

Youth and student organizations, civil activists and oppositionists say they will continue protests demanding the “abolition of the Russian law” and the resignation of the government until the parliamentary elections on October 26. President Salome Zurabishvili promised to lead the “United Front of Pro-European Forces” during the upcoming elections, and the country’s third president, Mikheil Saakashvili, now imprisoned, called on all pro-Western opposition forces, including his party “United National Movement” (UNM), to take part in the October elections a single electoral list.