A debate to approve Georgia’s controversial foreign agents bill in the second reading was disrupted after fights broke out in the chamber between members of the ruling party and opposition MPs on May 1, JAM News reports.
Video posted on social media showed deputies shouting and hitting each other as the debate was due to being. The bill has already been passed in the first reading and must be approved by the assembly by at least one more reading.
The debate on the bill already descended into fisticuffs during the vote for the first reading of the bill. Georgian opposition lawmaker Aleko Elisashvili walked to the podium andpunched Mamuka Mdinaradze, leader of the parliamentary faction of the ruling Georgian Dream party, in the head as he was trying to present arguments in favour of voting through the law.
'Your Russian mother is a motherf***er,' Elisashvili shouted as he struck Mdinaradze and then was dragged by security, RFE/RL reported.
Mdinaradze appeared to be unharmed by the attack and after a short break was back heading the legal affairs committee session in parliament.
As the growing crisis goes into its 16 day, security measures have been intensified in and around the parliament with only TV crews permitted inside.
The parliament building has been the scene of growing protests against the passage of the law, modelled on a Russian analogue. Russian President Vladimir Putin has used his foreign agents law to repress civil society and silence the opposition media.
Demonstrations are expected outside the parliament later today, potentially drawing participants not only from Tbilisi, but from diverse regions of Georgia as well.
Tbilisi has been rocked by growing mass demonstrations that are reminiscent of demonstrations against the same law that Georgian Dream tried to introduce last year. However, the protests became so large the government was eventually forced to withdraw the bill.
Tension were ratcheted up two days ago when oligarch Bidzina Ivanishvili and honour head of Georgian Dream gave his “Party of War” speech at a pro-government rally that blamed Georgia’s ill of the last decade on Western foreign interference and promised to use the foreign agents law to crackdown on United National Movement (UNM), the leading opposition party that was former lead by Mikheil Saakashvili and Georgian Dream’s main opponent in the October general election.
Some 100,000 protestors returned to the streets last night to continue the vigil but were attacked by riot police using batons, tear gas and rubber bullets.Violent clashes broke out in central Tbilisi on April 30 between the crowd and police, with one opposition leader bloodied by a beating that knocked out several of his teeth before he was hospitalised. Police also used water cannons on the crowd that were singing the Georgian national anthem and carrying EU flags.
Georgian police arrested 63 demonstrators during the crackdown, said Deputy Interior Minister Aleksandre Darakhvelidze on May 1.
More protests are expected today, and the situation remains pregnant with more violence.
