![Georgia holds its breath Georgia holds its breath](https://media.lesechos.com/api/v1/images/view/6644ccc3921e5c7f283d9dd6/1280x720/01101086090354-web-tete.jpg)
Life returned to a semblance of normality this Wednesday afternoon in Tbilisi after the “crazy day” of Tuesday which saw Parliament adopt the controversial law on foreign influences, by 84 votes to 30. A crowd of around 80,000 people marched peacefully in the night to protest against this “Russian law” and representatives of European countries took to the podium one after the other to show their support.
Before a new procession, scheduled for the evening by the leaders of the protest, from around a hundred civil society organizations, Westerners continued to express their support, or to call on the Georgian regime to suspend this law which would register under the infamous name “agent in the service of a foreign power”, which is to say “traitor”, any media or NGO receiving more than a fifth of its funding from abroad. Knowing that it is almost impossible for media or NGOs critical of the regime to operate solely on local resources due to political pressure on possible financiers.
Westerners call on the regime to back down
On Wednesday, the foreign ministers of the Baltic States and Iceland took over from the chairmen of the foreign affairs committees of the Parliaments of Germany, Lithuania, Poland, Finland and the Czech Republic, who arrived on Monday. The latter, described as “frivolous politicians” by the president of the Georgian Parliament, spoke in front of the building where a crowd of tens of thousands of demonstrators had gathered and sang sometimes the national anthem and sometimes that of the European Union , the ode to joy from Beethoven’s ninth symphony.
James O’Brien, representative of the US State Department, also threatened sanctions, suspension of visas and asset freezes on the deputies who voted for the law, as well as their families. No consensus on sanctions seemed to be emerging, however, in Brussels due to opposition from Hungary and Slovakia. No high-level French, British or Italian leaders have been dispatched to Tbilisi in recent days. But Paris deplored the vote on this law on Wednesday.
On Wednesday, the head of European diplomacy Josep Borrell and the European Commission called on Georgia to withdraw this law, which NATO described as “a step in the wrong direction”, which “distances Georgia from European and Euro-integration”. Atlantic”. The aspiration to join the EU and NATO is enshrined in the Georgian Constitution. Tbilisi has had the status of candidate for membership of the Union since last December but does not have the status of entry into the Atlantic Alliance. Membership of the latter is however considered a priority by the demonstrators met by “Les Echos”, because it would be supposed to provide security in relation to Russia. The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Volker Türk, said for his part “deeply regrets” the adoption of this law despite “warnings from human rights defenders”.
Two weeks of tension at least in perspective
The vote on the law in the third and final reading of the law on Tuesday certainly constitutes a setback for the demonstrators and supporters of integration in the West, also numerous, paradoxically, within the ruling party, Georgian Dream. But the crisis is far from over. Almost all universities are already no longer functioning. The protesters’ spokespersons called for civil disobedience on Tuesday evening as well as a general strike, the effects of which were not perceptible, on Wednesday in Tbilisi, where all stores were open and buses were running. But the prospect of an economic impact caused the price of the two main Georgian banks, listed on the London Stock Exchange, to drop by 15% on Wednesday morning, and the Tbilisi Stock Exchange index fell by 11% at 2 p.m.
The opposition parties, very dispersed in the last elections and none of which exceeded 12% of voting intentions in the polls, but “which seem to be starting to realize that they are at stake for their survival with the passage of this law”, underlines Levan Tsutskiridze, director of the Eastern European Center for Multi-Party Democracy (EECMD), were called to unite by civil society spokespeople, as well as pro-European President Salomé Zourabichvili.
The latter has few powers apart from a right of veto, which it has said it is determined to exercise over this law. This veto can be overcome by a two-thirds majority in a vote which would take place within two or three weeks; It would therefore be necessary for ten of the 84 deputies of the ruling coalition who voted for the law on Tuesday to change their minds for the veto to hold.