The Georgian president, Salomé Zourabichvili, pro-European and opposed to the Government, refused to sign a law that restricts LGBTQIA+ rights, her services announced on Wednesday, October 2, a text that has been strongly condemned in the West.
METROme Zourabishvili “he refused to sign the law and returned it to Parliament without vetoing it”declared the spokesperson for the president of this Caucasian country, Marika Botchoidzé. However, the law should be able to come into force because the President of Parliament has the power to sign it in case of refusal by the Presidency.
“Stigma” and “discrimination”
In September, Georgian elected officials adopted this text on “family values”that prohibits “propaganda of homosexual relations and incest” in educational establishments and television broadcasts, and also restricts “rallies and demonstrations”.
Human rights groups have criticized this formulation, which equates incest and homosexuality.
The European Union estimated in early September that “violates the fundamental rights of Georgians and risks reinforcing the stigmatization and discrimination of a part of the population”.
The legislation, similar to what exists in Russia, was approved by deputies from the ruling Georgian Dream party.
This party, with conservative and anti-Western rhetoric, is accused of endangering Georgia’s rapprochement with the United States and Europe. The country aspires to join NATO and the EU, but critics of the Georgian Dream accuse it of preferring Moscow.
The country is called to the polls on October 26 for legislative elections considered crucial.
Mass protests in spring
Georgia was rocked in the spring by mass demonstrations against another law, this time in“foreign influence” and is also inspired by a Russian repressive text.
In Russia, legislation that represses “LGBT propaganda” was adopted about ten years ago and expanded considerably since then, with Moscow even adding what it describes as “international LGBT movement” in your list of declared entities “terrorists and extremists”although no organization bears this name in the country.
