Ruling party Sec Gen says Parliament will override veto on transparency law, despite “expected US sanctions”

Kakha Kaladze, the Mayor of Tbilisi and the Secretary General of the ruling Georgian Dream party, on Saturday said the Georgian Parliament would override President Salome Zourabichvili’s veto on the law on transparency of foreign influence, despite the “expected sanctions from the United States”.

The US Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Thursday announced visa restrictions for “those responsible for undermining democracy” in Georgia in connection to the transparency law, adopted by the ruling Georgian Dream party, as well as a comprehensive review of the cooperation between the two countries.

In his response, Kaladze told the media it was “unbelievable” that Georgia’s strategic partner - the US - would impose sanctions due to the law adopted by the legitimately elected legislative body of the country.

Such actions are inconceivable, however, despite all this, we will certainly overcome the veto. Because it concerns the country's interests, sovereignty, our statehood, which is very important for every Georgian”, he stressed, adding the Georgian Government was “ready for cooperation and partnership, but this cannot happen unilaterally”.

"In recent years, we have heard many statements of this type. We only welcome friendship, partnership and healthy relationships. But what is happening now is the opposite of all this. These actions are neither friendship nor partnership. What they [the US] are doing now in the form of these sanctions, it turns out that we [Georgia] are not their friends, but their enemies. I think that the existing relations [between Georgia and the US] need to be restarted”, Kakha Kaladze said.

The Parliament last week adopted the law, which requires groups “considered to be an organisation pursuing the interests of a foreign power” - determined by more than 20 percent of their funding coming from abroad - to be registered in the public registry with the status and publicise their received funding.

It has been met by public protests and criticism from some of Georgia’s international partners, and was vetoed by President Salome Zourabichvili, however the ruling party has enough votes to overcome her veto.