Tension in the Georgian parliament after the head of the opposition attacked a member of the government

There was a moment of tension in the plenary session of the Georgian Parliament this Monday. According to Reuters, Mamuka Medinaradze, a member of the country’s current ruling party, Georgian Dream, has been seriously punched in the face by opposition leader Aleko Eliashvili. The footage shows how Medinaradze was speaking about a bill on “foreign agents” in the speakers’ gallery when Eliashvili punched him.

Later, the two began to fight while surrounded by other members of parliament, which was recorded and broadcast live on the Georgian Legislative Assembly channel, which cut off the broadcast at this point.

The bill, which provides for registration in the Georgian Justice Ministry’s public register of organizations whose external financing exceeds 20%, will in principle begin debate in parliament next Monday. The South Caucasus country’s opposition has denounced that this legal norm could become a means to suppress dissent, as Russia does with a similar law.

According to Europa Press, the commission meeting was immediately suspended and delegates had to leave the chamber with journalists, according to information from the Georgian news portal Civil. “They are pulling us towards Russia. This is not the time to sit at home, we should throw him out (of parliament),” Elishaishvili said after the controversy.

Georgian Prime Minister Irakli Kobakhidze, whose country has EU candidate country status, said that “this bill only provides for an annual publication of NGO finances” and “to date no one has been able to explain that this is the minimum Why “NGO transparency cannot be established.”

“For many years, radical organizations and polarizers have been funded from abroad and illegal funding of parties is also a common practice. We understand very well why they are afraid of the publication of their finances,” the Prime Minister of Georgia stressed.