Unrest in Georgia over the “Foreign Influence Transparency Law”: “Whichever Way We Go Is a Step Back”

Published in LeftEast on May 2, 2024, co-authored with Sopiko Japaridze

“[…] The most cynical and dangerous game, however, is tying this law to Georgia’s EU accession process. Far-away Western observers get teary-eyed about Georgians’ standing up for their “vibrant civil society,” but on the ground, protesters say unprompted that they are not in the streets to defend NGOs and, indeed, do not much care about them. These vox pop impressions are backed up by years of polls showing Georgians’ low trust in NGOs. Instead, people take to the streets because they have been told that this is a make-or-break moment for Georgia’s future in the EU. 

Georgia’s aspiration for EU membership is the rawest of all nerves in Georgian politics and culture. After three decades of post-Soviet impoverishment, of lives cut short, pain and trauma, chronic stress, insecurity, and humiliation, the idea of EU membership has become an eschatological project for many Georgians: it represents the promise of salvation after long and unjust suffering and sacrifice. The EU stands not just for dreams – of material well-being, safety, dignity, comfort – coming true, but for recognition of Georgians’ inherent “Europeanness,” their specialness, their cultural superiority compared to their “Asian” neighbors. […]”

To read the whole piece, co-authored with Georgian labor union activist Sopiko Japaridze (who has a new Substack you should subscribe to), click here.