Thousands of pro-European demonstrators have protested in Tbilisi against the Georgian government's plans to reintroduce legislation aimed at curbing foreign-funded non-governmental organizations.
A local spokesman told dpa some 10,000 people took part in the demonstration.
Under the new law, which the ruling Georgian Dream party is trying to introduce, all non-governmental organizations (NGO) that receive more than 20% of their funding from abroad would have to make an annual declaration. In Georgia, many civil society projects are dependent on Western funding.
Critics of the law accuse the Georgian government of wanting to weaken pro-Western forces in the country.
The pro-Western president of the South Caucasus republic, Salome Zurabishvili, said she believed the law, similar to one last year which failed in the face of mass protests, would also fail.
Zurabishvili criticized the planned law as a Russian project.
"No one... who will enter Georgia with Russian signage, the Russian flag, or Russian enslavement, will emerge victorious, she said, adding that the country has a choice between "independence and enslavement, Europe or Russia, and we know what our choice is!"
The action in front of the parliament ended with Georgia's national anthem and Beethoven's "Ode to Joy," the official anthem of the European Union.
The law mirrors a controversial Russian law against so-called foreign agents, which stigmatizes organizations or individuals as puppets of the West. It is primarily used to persecute dissidents.
The protest organizers said on Tuesday in front of the parliament in Tbilisi that the fight against the law will continue.
The next major rally is planned for Monday, the day the law is to be discussed in a parliamentary committee.
Georgia, a former Soviet republic, was granted EU accession candidate status in December 2023.
It lost a brief war against Russia in 2008, including control of its breakaway territories of Abkhazia and South Ossetia.
The country, which is torn between its large neighbour Russia and the EU, is facing a landmark parliamentary election this year.
