Georgia's fractured political landscape absorbed another blow this month with the swift parliamentary approval of a "foreign agent" bill, which targets media and NGOs despite intense outcry from the public and the Caucasus nation's Western partners.
Unlike the situation a year ago when the ruling Georgian Dream party bowed to popular anger over a similar bill, weeks of street unrest failed to derail what some critics describe as "the Russian law," a reminder of a painful Soviet past and invoking the specter of growing Kremlin influence.
President Salome Zurabishvili, who has increasingly feuded with Georgian Dream since the party endorsed her candidacy in 2018, has opposed both iterations of the bill. She has described the latest version -- called the Law On Transparency Of Foreign Influence and passed on May 14 -- as an unpopular attempt to divert candidate Georgia from its EU path and "crush civil society." She has repeatedly vowed to "veto" it.
But in 2018, after a series of constitutional amendments, power in Georgia swung power heavily away from the presidency and toward the 150-member unicameral Parliament, where Georgian Dream and its nominally distinct ally People's Power control 83 seats.
And anyway the presidential equivalent of a "veto," as prescribed in Georgia's revised constitution, packs less of a punch than you might think.
What Is President Zurabishvili Empowered To Do?
Zurabishvili herself has characterized her option to stall the law's implementation as a "veto."
But strictly speaking, neither the Georgian Constitution nor the rules of parliamentary procedure contain any provision for a presidential veto in the sense of the head of state simply "forbidding" a piece of legislation. Instead, a president has two weeks to either sign and promulgate the law or send a carefully argued alternative back to lawmakers in the form of "justified remarks."
Such "remarks" cannot simply repeal legislation or demand that it be repealed, according to Vakhushti Menabde, a former constitutional and rights lawyer and activist who teaches public law at Ilia State University in Tbilisi and has commented throughout the current crisis.
They must identify specific passages of the bill that are considered unacceptable, argue why they are objectionable, and lay out a new version of the bill incorporating the proposed changes. The president's version can either replace wording or exclude passages entirely.
What Does Zurabishvili Intend To Do?
Zurabishvili deplores the bill, which she's likened to the "old Russian Soviet propaganda tricks" familiar to many older Georgians.
She has repeatedly said she will "veto" it, but she has also conceded that her moves are likely to prove merely "symbolic."
And after a meeting with a handful of visiting foreign ministers on May 15, Zurabishvili discouraged Georgians and Western critics of the bill from placing hopes in such a presidential step. She expressed concern at simply enabling "false, artificial, misleading negotiations" with the ruling party over the legislation, adding, "No, and never!" She did not want to become an accessory to Georgian Dream's alleged effort at "transition from this [EU] path," she said.
"No one should think that Georgia's president can be used to save some face for this government," Zurabishvili said. "Today, that's not the issue; the issue is saving Georgia."
She has 14 days from the bill's submission from parliament to deliver her "justified remarks," in this case reportedly until May 28.
Where Does That Leave Parliament?
If Zurabishvili submits "justified remarks," a failure by parliament to vote on them indefinitely could effectively kill the bill for now, although the constitution does not address how long lawmakers can wait to conduct such a vote.
At that stage, there is no room for negotiations between the legislature and the presidency for changes in either the approved bill or the "remarks" version.
Lawmakers are limited to a simple up-or-down vote on the "justified remarks" in their entirety; they cannot accept some changes while rejecting others.
If parliament approves the president's "remarks" version with a simple majority of those present (and a quorum of at least 50), the resulting bill goes back to the president within five days for signature and promulgation within five more days.
Alternatively, parliament can reject the "remarks" and pass the initial bill with 76 (out of 150 possible) votes, sending it to the president within three days for signature and promulgation within five days. If the president declines to sign it, it goes to the speaker of parliament for their signature.
Is It Going Into Force Anyway?
Zurabishvili has acknowledged that governing party lawmakers will "most probably" override the "veto," barring a climbdown by Georgian Dream in the face of public and diplomatic pressure. But she also noted that parliament could effectively abandon the legislation by choosing to ignore her justified remarks ("let the veto be") or voting to block the bill themselves -- possibly with an eye to redrafting it or pushing it back until after parliamentary elections scheduled for October 26.
Georgian Dream leader and Prime Minister Irakli Kobakhidze told journalists immediately after parliament's third reading on May 14 that "no third question will be discussed." In reference to a plan by the Venice Commission, the Council of Europe's advisory body on issues of constitutional law, to issue an opinion on the bill by May 28, he added that "if the Venice Commission wants to present any issue [with the bill], it must do so now."
Georgian Dream and People's Power lawmakers took 67 seconds to clear the bill in the legal-affairs committee on May 13 and passed it in its third and final reading by an 84-30 vote on May 14, in a plenary session convened after police forcibly dispersed protesters outside Parliament.
