Georgian Dream reintroduces draft law on foreign agents

Georgia 3 April, 2024 21:53

On April 3, the parliamentary majority leader of the ruling Georgian Dream party, Mamuka Mdinaradze, announced the reintroduction of the draft law on foreign agents, which was dropped last year after the massive rallies on March 7-9, Civil.ge reports.

According to Mdinaradze, the content of the bill remains the same, the only change is in the title: the word “agent” in it has been removed and the title has been replaced with “Organization Pursuing the Interests of a Foreign Power”.

“The parliamentary majority, after consultation with the political council of the party, has decided to reintroduce the draft law “On Transparency of Foreign Influence” to the Parliament. The bill will be introduced in the Parliament of Georgia with exactly the same text as it was introduced last year, with only one difference. You all remember that last year we introduced the bill and immediately after the introduction we expressed our readiness to replace the term “agent of foreign influence” with another term. In the draft law we are introducing today, the term “organization pursuing the interests of a foreign power” will be used instead of the term “agent of foreign influence”,” – stated Mdinaradze during his press briefing.

Mdinaradze reiterated the GD party’s narrative from last year, claiming that the bill only requires organizations that receive foreign funding to publish their own annual financial report, with only financial penalties for violations.

“It will no longer be possible to brand a bill on the transparency of foreign influence using shady methods without delving into its content, Georgian Parliament Speaker Shalva Papuashvili told reporters, Georgian Public Broadcaster reports.

According to Papuashvili, “Last year, the opposition managed to speak to the public through branding, stigmatization, and not go into content, but this year, they will have to enter into this discussion.”

According to the Speaker, the opposition did not look into the bill’s details last year but will have to engage in discussions this time. He mentioned that the bill would progress through three hearings in the usual timeframe.

“Let them come and say what they have against it. The organizations that participate in the formation of Georgian politics and are financed from abroad should tell who finances them and for what purposes,” Papuashvili said.

The Speaker believes that covert financing of political parties and radical groups increased in Georgia. He noted that donors promised that all finances would be transparent but did not keep the promise.

Papuashvili reminded Georgian people how the finances of the Droa party became known when the party leader uttered that the European Endowment for Democracy (EED) financed the party’s pre-election campaign through a fake NGO, adding that “speculation that everything is transparent is a lie.”

“There is a situation when foreign funds directly, rudely and secretly finance politics in Georgia. We also said in the statement that all this is in the context of Georgia facing security challenges,” he said and claimed that Georgian people did not know what “stood behind this and that organization.”

“During these conversations, no one denies that there are opaque funds, but we could not go further than that, and of course, this is a matter for the state and society,” the Speaker said.

The ruling Georgian Dream (GD) party will resubmit a modified draft bill on transparency of foreign financing.

The draft law “On the Transparency of Foreign Influence” will have the same wording as last year, except for the term “agent of foreign influence,” which will be replaced with the term “organization pursuing the interests of a foreign power.”