Ruling party official: EPP initiative on Foreign Agents Registration Act “evidence” of “hoax of century” in Georgia

Mamuka Mdinaradze, the Executive Secretary of the ruling Georgian Dream party, on Tuesday said the call by the European People's Party, the largest party in Europe, for the creation of a European equivalent to the United States Foreign Agents Registration Act, was an “evidence” of a “hoax of the century” in Georgia, in reference to public protests against a similar bill that led to its withdrawal by the ruling party on March 9.

Mdinaradze drew a contrast between the bill that had been branded a “Russian law” by the domestic opposition and civil sector in their protest, and the acceptance of a similar “American law” “in Europe, Canada, Australia, Great Britain and Israel”.

Any of us - any citizen, politician, journalist - should think about how it happened that the same law is American everywhere, [and] only in Georgia it was branded as ‘Russian’. That is, it was the hoax of the century, in which, unfortunately, many honest Georgian citizens got involved, and maybe many of them sincerely protested”, the GD official said.

Manfred Weber, the Chair of the EPP Group in the European Parliament, Monika Hohlmeier, the Chair of the European Parliament's Committee on Budgetary Control and Petri Sarvamaa, the EPP Group Spokesperson on Budgetary Control, on Monday released a letter calling for the creation of a European equivalent to the US Foreign Agents Registration Act.

The letter said “we need politicians and lobbyists from third countries to register and reveal how they approach EU lawmakers”.