Georgian President says she will veto controversial bill on transparency of foreign influence

Georgian President Salome Zourabichvili on Sunday said she would “veto” the controversial domestic bill on transparency of foreign influence.

At a press briefing, Zourabichvili noted that despite vetoing the bill, she would not “engage in manipulations and start playing games”, while commenting on Georgian Prime Minister Irakli Kobakhidze’s recent statement, in which he said the positions regarding the transparency bill could be “agreed on” following the recommendations from foreign partners.

The President emphasised that Kobakhidze’s attempt to introduce changes in the initiated version of the bill within the veto procedure would "create confusion" in the society and stressed she would probably use the right of veto without any substantive comments.

If you want to change something in this law, either withdraw it or send it back to the second reading and listen to the [domestic] opposition in the Parliament, [...] or postpone the implementation date of the law after the [upcoming parliamentary] elections”, Zourabichvili noted and added “whoever comes in power”, [it] will decide whether this draft bill “is Russian or not”.

The President also made comments about yesterday's rally against the transparency bill and said that Georgia “once again showed to everyone that it will not allow to put the [country’s] European future in question, [and] will not allow the Russian law”.

The protesters of the bill announced an overnight stay outside the Parliament building on Sunday night not to allow the MPs to enter the legislative body and discuss the transparency bill in the third reading at the Legal Issues Committee on Monday.

Zourabichvili called on the protesters to “be very careful” and urged the law enforcement structures “do not dare to repress [freedom of expression], [engage in] violence [and] invent conspiracies during the rallies”.

The draft law, which calls for the registration of non-commercial legal entities and media outlets in the country as “pursuing the interests of a foreign power” if they derive more than 20 percent of their funding from abroad, will be discussed at the Legal Issues Committee on Monday and the Parliament is set to adopt the bill in its third reading on Tuesday.