A parliamentary session in the European country of Georgia ended in an all-out brawl among lawmakers after Aleko Elisashvili, leader of the opposition Citizens party, assaulted Mamuku Mdinaradze, executive secretary of the ruling Georgian Dream party, while he was speaking from the chamber's podium:
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Fight Breaks out in Georgia’s Parliament
— Alex Barnicoat (@mrbarnicoat) April 15, 2024
The fight caused the livestream of the legislative assembly to be interrupted to avoid broadcasting the embarrassing images. It was resumed once they managed to throw Aleko Elisashvili out of the room and calm the rest of the legislators, who continued with the parliamentary session.
As explained by Reuters, the fight came in the midst of a speech on the controversial "foreign agents" bill that would require "organizations that accept funds from abroad to register as foreign agents or face fines."
This is not the first time that the Georgian government has tried to move forward with this initiative. Just over a year ago, the process was rejected after receiving criticism from several European countries and the U.S. Now, Georgia Dream has brought back the bill to try to make it law, which provoked a multitude of protests in the country. In fact, protesters watched Elisashvili as he left the parliament building.
The bill could prevent Georgia from joining the European Union. The country managed in December to achieve "candidate" status, but the country's accession to the E.U. could be complicated if the government approves the foreign agents bill since, according to the leaders of the supranational body, the measure is incompatible with its values.
