Now Georgia's prospects of joining the EU r jeopardy after the ruling party passed a foreign agents bill. Now, under the law, foreign funded NGOs and independent media would have to register with the government. Now, the ruling parties as a bill is necessary for transparency, but the legislation has triggered massive protests and drawn condemnation from the US, from the EU and from NATO. Well, we're delighted to be joined by Salome subar Shally, the President of Georgia, who
has said she will veto the law matter. President, thank you so much for joining us. Do you think that this law could still be stopped or reversed?
It has been stopped and rejected last year by the same mass demonstrations and protests from our European and.
Foreign American partners.
But it has been reintroduced despite the promise by the government that they will never do so, and the way they have introduced it and debated it in the parliament without allowing the opposition really to be present even does not make me hope that they're going to withdraw it. And frankly, by now it doesn't matter very much whether
they withstraw this law or not. Because it's a whole picture that is very concerning all other laws that have been going running against the recommendations made by European Union in order for US to be able to apply for opening negotiations of accession. So the whole range on one side, laws that go against the absence of laws that are required in the fields where we are supposed to make progress,
there is nothing to be done. And the third part is a rhetoric which is very anti Western, anti European, from the top to the bottom of the ruling party, from the represident is freely to older leaders.
They speak the same language and call.
Our partners of thirty years that have really built our state and its independence and its development. They're called foreign agents that want to subvert the country, that want to destabilized, that want to withdraw the government. This is a very Russian language. That's Russia. That's what Russia is always saying.
Madame President, what it is prompted?
So, how much concern has there been in your discussions with the US and with the EU, and what does this mean to possibly exceed you membership.
Well, it means that we are at a very concerning point that the measure is taken, and the turn taken by the authorities is not leaving us in that direction, and that's why you see these lassive demonstrations up to two hundred thousand people, and it's a thirty seventh stage, thirty eighth stay of demonstrations, and that explains it's this major concern that we might be losing a very important chance and that chance might not come back in the future,
and that would be the responsibility of the government. So there is concern in the society, There is concern among our partners. But we still have a chance because we have closed by elections next October. And I think that after this very clear demonstration expression of the will of the people on the streets, now we need to have a very.
Clear expression of the will of the people.
In the elections to confirm that the road they want is a road.
To Europe and nothing else. So it will be a kind of thread.
Yeah. Are you, in more immediate time actually concerned about the increase in violence and the crackdown on protesters.
I am concerned when you have in a rule thirty days of demonstrations. Well, we are very pacific protesters to underline that, because there are basically young people, but not only and there has not been one single car burnt or warn't shop vandalized during all these demonstrations, So that shows the type of demonstrations we have where people sing and dance.
But of course the violence.
That is exerted by the police forces and especially by special forces can always escalate. That's why I think that we have to be very careful that our partners have to put pressure on the authorities to stop the intimidation that we have. People are arrested, including their homes because they have been seen.
And photographed on the demonstrations.
So that should be the pressure that we need today from our partners, Europeans and Western partners, and then we will need support to prepare for the elections.
Madam President, you've called this a you know this law Russian law. Does this go to the fact that basically it's a battle in Georgia over who to align with Russia or the West.
There's no battle in Georgia.
Georgia, you have to remember, is a country that has been fighting for its independence from many countries over the centuries, but from Russia still since eighteen o one.
So it's very clear for us.
So who is the country that wants to occupy Russia Georgia and who are our friends partners that have been supporting Georgia's independence and development.
And Georgia's independence is.
Directly today for eighty percent of the population, and that explains the high numbers linked to Georgia's independence.
We know that those two cannot be deluined.
That's why such a reaction, and that's why such a strong support to our European future.
But why do you think the founder of the ruling party actually wants us law.
That you have to ask to them. It doesn't make sense. They might even have won the elections if they're not presented this law. And because their speech until now, their narrative until then nas December, despite some measures that were not very comprehensible, the narrative in December was that we are going towards the European Union. We are the ones
that made that possible. And suddenly we have the narrative that you can hear in the speech of the president of the party and infially on twenty nine of April, which is a war on our Western and European partners.
Madam President, thank you so much for joining us today. That was Salomon Lurabash really thank you. The President of Georgia. There