Georgia President Advised Rioters How to Continue Fight

The fight of protesters near the parliament building in Tbilisi is no longer against the adoption of the law on foreign agents, but for victory in the upcoming parliamentary elections, Georgian President Salome Zurabishvili said on May 1, addressing the participants in the demonstration.

On April 30, protesters attempted to break into the Georgian parliament building, building barricades and blocking roads. The police used tear gas and water cannon against them. Zurabishvili demanded that the police stop suppressing the riots.

On May 1, after the law on foreign agents was adopted in second reading, protesters attempted to break into the Parliament building in the center of Tbilisi. They threw stones and bottles at the windows and the courtyard of the parliament, began to block the exits of the building and set fires nearby.

“I would like to appeal to the inspired young people who share their energy with us today so that some things are no longer necessary. Leave the doors of parliament alone. “Nothing happens there.”Zurabishvili said.

Georgian Interior Ministry special forces used water cannon, pepper spray and tear gas from the parliament courtyard. Georgia’s Interior Ministry denied the use of rubber bullets against protesters and reported that protesters were using an unknown gas, which is not commercially available.

“This law was already approved in the second reading and our struggle is practically no longer this law, but the line of struggle goes through the elections and the abolition of all those laws that have been recently approved by the authorities and that distance us from the path. European”.said the president of Georgia.

Recall that on May 1, the Georgian parliament adopted in second reading the law “On Transparency of Foreign Influence”, which involves the submission of financial statements for non-governmental organizations that are financed from abroad by more than 20 percent by year. year. The bill does not imply prohibitions or sanctions.

Source: Rossa Primavera