Not agents - but people

In three days and thirty seconds - in the parliament of Georgia they buried the "Law on Transparency of Foreign Infant"

The Georgian parliament today needed only thirty seconds to cancel the “Law on Transparency of Foreign Infant”, due to which tens of thousands of people protested on Tbilisi's streets for three days and three nights.

The law, which the opposition and civil society calls a copy of the Russian law on foreign agents, was adopted in the first hearing on March 7. Two days passed and the ruling party "Georgian Dream" had to abandon their intentions, because there were more protesters on Tbilisi streets than police officers.

If on March 7, 76 deputies voted for the law, today there was only one fundamental parliamentarian, which again supported the law - and after a couple of hours he said that he did it by mistake. Another 35 people pressed the red buttons, others just refrained. The law failed, as promised on the eve of the Georgian Dream.

The ruling party also swore that this was not a temporary trick and that it would no longer return to an attempt to call someone agents of influence. The opposition urges not to lose vigilance and prepare for new provocations.

But everyone admits that this is the first serious victory that forced the “dream” to abandon its well -thought -out plans. How did it become possible?

Something has changed in Georgia in recent days-and this is not only about a very warm March. New people, those who have been born in the last 20-25 years, came to the current protests. They never lived under the USSR, the rule of Shevardnadze in the 90s is considered some kind of ice age, Saakashvili did not really find the government of the power 11 years ago-but they no longer believe in propaganda about the then “bloody regime”. Young people also do not complain to the “Georgian Dream”, like any other politicians, but believe in European integration, for which this party has always been advanced in words. Thanks to the Association with the EU signed under the “dream”, Georgian youth travels to Europe without visas, she has a lot of friends there, some of them are studying in the West. In general, they are used to freedom and indignant when they try to take it away.

Georgian Jeni

“Generation Z”, or as it is now customary to reduce, Gen-Z, are people who are now from 11 to 26 years old. Yesterday, when the ruling party announced that the bill would withdraw, everyone began to say that it was the merit of “Jen-Zi”. They became a face of protest. The world saw in Tbilisi guys and girls in bright clothes, selflessly dancing to the sounds of a siren, which is actually invented to cause a sense of panic.

These days, Tbilisi for the world has become a city where a girl in red pants jumps over the streams of a water fur, as if it were a computer game, and not overclocking a rally at three in the morning.

Jen-Zi-boys and girls, became right in front of the special forces and handed them bouquets with cyclamen. And most importantly, they simply did not leave the streets. When the protesters were once again ousted from the avenue, when it seemed that everything, no one else would come here, new groups of guys and girls arose from nowhere - on scooters, on foot, running, in small groups, they again gradually filled the space, covered the roads not only to Rustaveli, but also in completely different areas of Tbilisi - on the embankment, on the heroes. Therefore, every night the protests had to be dispersed to 7 in the morning. Apparently, the authorities realized that Jen -i was running faster than police officers.

They had only one thing left - shoot youth. The police would hardly have decided on this. Everyone noticed that this time the police did not use rubber bullets during the dispersal of protests. In Georgia, everyone remembers June 2019, when, during the brutal suppression of the rally to Gavrilov’s night, several people lost their eyesight, one of them, 18-year-old Maco Gomuri, who knocked his eyes with a rubber bullet, became an “dream” of eternal reproaches and a reminder of those tragic events. Then the government had to recognize the disproportionate use of power to demonstrators.

This time, protests did without casualties and will be remembered, rather, by posters, which every day became more and more mocking:

“But interesting, this gas can cause addiction?”

- "Yes, we go to clubs for sirens and smoke!"

- "You cannot poison me with gas, my ex former is even more toxic"

- "Yes, I am afraid of my grandmother with a slipper in my hand than you!"

At the rally, which began again last night, after it became known that the authorities retreated and are ready to withdraw the law, one of the students shouted into the microphone in a voice hoarse from gas: “This government wants us to be afraid of them. No! It is they who should be afraid of us! ”

“Remember, you are not the“ power of the people ”, you are the shame of the people - so you turned to the rally to the initiators of the law. “Strength is us.”

After it became known that the procedure for canceling the bill will take place on Friday, and not on March 20, many cried from excess feelings. The crowd sang hymns of Georgia, the European Union and Ukraine. Holding hands, they danced to Horumi. They were silent in memory of the dead in Ukraine. Changered "We are Europe!" And "Long live Georgia!"

It was festive and pathetic to the shares, but it is very simple - as it always happens when the war ends with a victory.

Nino Danelia is a media expert, professor of the Ilya State University (Chavchavadze) described the appearance of young people in protests: at the most hopeless moment “Angels descend from heaven”.

“My generation has been going to rallies since the 90s. But I was convinced that now the youth looks at the protest in a completely different way, they plan their actions differently. They are self -organized. When we fled to Rustaveli to the embankment, they immediately took out the phones, opened the map, said that we must find a knot, where the streets converge to block the movement - to take places for retreat when the special forces come. This is a technological generation, they use these skills. They quickly blocked the area of ​​the heroes, blocked the embankment, have already begun to plan what to do the next day. They did not expect representatives of parties to them, or some kind of organizers of the shares. Immediately divided into groups of 100 people, distributed duty. And we just stood and looked at them with enthusiasm, ”said Nino Danelia on the air of the program“ Reaction ”on the TV Pirveli.

Everyone also thanked the journalists of independent television companies who worked on the shares of the night on the right in direct broadcasts. Reporters could no longer talk, did not see anything, but still spent lives, did not leave the streets. “People had to understand that without free media we would simply not have seen everything that was happening,” Danelia noted.

Representatives of the most active - student - movements, say that they all started with a "moral dilemma." Students of the largest university in Georgia, the Tbilisi State University, announced the boycott to the lecturer - the deputy, the chairman of the Committee on International Relations. They abandoned the course of lectures by Nikoloz Samharadze after he supported the bill on foreign agents.

“In the audience, we listened to one information about the EU from the expert in this area of ​​Nikoloz Samharadze, and a completely different policy was pursued in parliament. The bill violated our constitution because it interfered with the process of European integration. All this began to bother us, we talked, organized and decided to abandon his lectures, defiantly. We created the movement “Students against Russian Law” and joined the general protest on the streets. When the rulers do not reflect your will, you need to demand it from them. Otherwise, we will not live in a democratic country, ”said Georgy Pachuashvili, a student of Tbilisi State University.

It is clear with students, but it was always surprised that on promotions it was often possible to see teenagers.

The other day, I caught in the crowd on the rally my familiar for 16 years and asked why she suddenly began to actively go to stocks and generally be interested in politics.

It turns out that it all started when the war in Ukraine penetrated Tick-Tok. Prior to this, Georgian teenagers were practically not interested in Russia. They don’t listen to Russian music, they don’t watch television programs. And suddenly in the social network a stream of shocking information from the war and in parallel - stories about how in Russia they put people in prison for the fact that they go out with the posters “No War”.

“You see,” the girl explained to me in a blue hoodie, folding a mask and ski glasses in a bag-a standard set for those who go to the rally-when we realized that we can also declare people “agents” here, as in Russia, or they banned Instagram, or that we still have forbidden, in my opinion, everything is in the world-all the same in the world. And when the stocks began, they very quickly became popular in Tik-Tok. Now such a trend that uploading photos from the action is, well, cool. And everyone is divided by information what to take with them how to dress, they leave water and milk on the streets to transfer it easier when you swallow gas. When we go to stocks, we just meet friends and scream all together, it's great. We show that we are free people and that we do not need to ban anything! ”

The parliament deputy from the opposition Nika Machutadze believes that the Georgian Dream has lost her grip:

“There is an expression -“ power corrupts, and absolute power - corrupts absolutely, ”in the case of a“ Georgian dream ”we can say that absolute power was also stunned.

They thought we died, but we were born again on the streets of Tbilisi. We saw the birth of a new Georgia. We saw young people, even minor teenagers, who consciously, without any directives, without calls, themselves realized that this was their country, and they had responsibility for this country.

I warned the government that they would see a wave of protest on the streets against the return of the USSR, the reincarnation of the Chekist dictatorship. This law is Bolshevik. For example, subparagraph “B” 8 of the article of the bill implied the return of “Anonymous”. It explained how the audit can begin in relation to an individual or legal entity. For this, a written statement is enough even with a slight indication. Just as before, when, because of such “instructions”, labels were hung on people, sent to exile, shot. ”

Macron writes on Georgian

It can be guessed that it worked on the “Georgian Dream”, which so sharply changed its plans in a few days.

And the plans were grandiose. On March 8, the party chairman Irakli Kobahidze practically announced the witch hunt. He said that "without protecting the state from espionage plans, Georgia will not become a member of the European Union and lose sovereignty." He even listed several organizations that can receive financial assistance from abroad and use it to overthrow the authorities. And these were not pro -Russian organizations, but “Sirtshvilia” and “Droa” - the most active movements of civil protest.

Today, after the bill was failed, Kobahidze made a short statement, at which he encouraged the vulnerable supporters of the “dreams” and “forces of the people”. “This bill did its job. Everyone admitted that the agent is bad, whose agent you may be. " Kobahidze threatened everyone who "included in the coup." He also promised to fight the “LGBT propaganda”, with the “shy of the Church”, and also said that the “national movement”-the party founded by Saakashvili-would never come to power again.

Observers agree that the authorities stopped two factors - the activity of protests that they could not control, and the pressure of the West.

Probably, a tough and concrete message was obtained, and it concerned, based on a lightning -fast reaction, the most expensive for the “Georgian dream” - Bidzina Ivanishvili. The West has more than once hinted that sanctions could impose against a billionaire associated with the Kremlin. Perhaps now these hints were more specific. But the fact: we do not yet know all the circumstances of either official or private negotiations.

On the night before the review of the bill to the Prime Minister of Georgia, Irakli Garibashvili, a call from Washington received, where by the way, the President of Georgia Salome Zurabishvili was on a protracted working trip.

The chief adviser to the head of the US State Department for Politics Derek Sholle spoke with Garibashvili “On protest and bills“ On Foreign Agents ”that contradict the desire of the Georgian people to European integration and democratic development,” as the message published on Twitter said.

Then, the State Department not only rejoiced at the review of the bill, but also warned the authorities: “We urge the ruling party to officially cancel the bill and no longer introduce such legislation. Precisely because it is incompatible with Georgian and Euro -Atlantic values ​​and the protection of basic freedoms.

... not only in the last few weeks, but for decades, the Georgian people made it clear that their desire is democratic Georgia, which is prosperous and integrated into the Euro -Atlantic region. They did this again, and the United States will continue to be a partner in these aspirations, ”said the official representative of the State Department Ned Price, making a third statement on Georgia this week.

They were very carefully monitored by the events in Tbilisi from Paris, probably here, Madame Zurabishvili, a former employee of the Foreign Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Yesterday, after the recall of the law, Emmanuel Macron devoted Twit to the Georgians. Today he appeared on the official Twitter of the President of France again, but already in Georgian:

“We understand the close connection of Georgians with democratic values, freedom of the press and freedom of assembly. Turning to Europe, Georgia knows that he can count on friendship with France. ”

Very diplomatically reacted to shares in Tbilisi in Kyiv. President Vladimir Zelensky has never mentioned protests. But he thanked "everyone who kept Ukrainian flags on the streets and squares of Georgia these days." Everyone saw a lot of Ukrainian flags on stocks - almost as much as Georgian and European.

“I thank everyone for our national anthem that sounded in Tbilisi,” the President of Ukraine said in his inclusion in social networks.

“I express my sincere respect for Georgia. There is no Ukrainian who does not wish our friend’s success - Georgia, democratic success, European success. We want to be in the European Union, and we will. We want Georgia to be in the European Union, and I am sure that it will be so. We want Moldova to be in the EU, and I am sure that it will be so. All the free peoples of Europe deserve this, ”Vladimir Zelensky.

Salome Zurabishvili triumphed - she was the only one of the authorities supported the protests, so it was her victory:

“The authorities should not dare and try to make an even greater polarization into this calm society, which knows where it goes and how it should go,” Zurabishvili said in a video message from the United States.

“I want to congratulate the whole society on the first such victory. I welcome the authorities to withdraw this law. This decision takes into account the real power of the people. ” According to her, all these events can increase Georgia’s chances of obtaining the status of an EU candidate - “since they effectively showed at what level the Georgian society is located, which has repeatedly manifested itself as pro -European.”

Now the Georgian society has the task of getting from the authorities the fulfillment of the 12 conditions put forward by the EU in order to provide the status of a candidate country. Until Tbilisi, have not figured out - the “Georgian Dream” wants this or not.