According to Telegram channel NEWSGEORGIA, the participants of the rally against “foreign agents” barricaded the side doors of the parliament with garbage containers. Some protesters threw trash over the barricade.
The police had to use water cannons and pepper spray. In addition, there are reports that the officers also shot rubber bullets at the participants of the action. Eight protestors are being treated in hospital.
The Ministry of the Interior of Sakartvel declares that the police officers did not use rubber bullets. Representatives say that the protesters damaged the surveillance cameras near the parliament building, set fire to the barricades, tried to climb over the closed gates, and also threw heavy objects and tear gas canisters through them.
May 1 at 11 p.m. local time, a “red danger level” was declared in the Sakartwell parliament building, which means that all persons, except those appointed by the leadership of the parliamentary apparatus, had to leave its territory.
On the night of May 1, police officers detained 63 participants of mass protests in Tbilisi, Sakartveli Deputy Minister of Internal Affairs Aleksandars Darachvelidze reported.
The European Union condemned the actions of law enforcement officials in Sakartvel.
The head of the European Union’s foreign and security policy, Josep Borrell, called on the Sakartvel authorities to grant the right of peaceful assembly to those protesting against the “foreign agents” law on the X social network. “The use of force in such a case is unacceptable,” he noted.
Thousands of Sakartveli residents renewed protests on Wednesday after parliament approved a controversial “foreign agents” bill despite weeks of demonstrations and warnings from Brussels that it would hurt Tbilisi’s bid to join the European Union.
Legislators approved the aforementioned draft law by 83 votes “for” and 23 “against” during the second reading. Sakartvelo’s ruling party, Sakartvelo’s Dream, said it intended to sign the law by mid-May, arguing that it only aims to increase the transparency of foreign funding of civic groups.
But his critics say the proposed law resembles a repressive Russian law used to silence dissent.
On Wednesday evening, thousands of demonstrators, waving Sakartvel and EU flags, gathered again outside the parliament and tried to block the building’s entrances, an AFP reporter said.
The unrest comes ahead of parliamentary elections scheduled for October, seen as the most important test of democracy in the Black Sea country seeking EU membership.
President Salome Zurabishvili, who is at odds with the ruling party, is expected to veto the law, but the party has enough votes to override her veto.
