'I'm in awe of our young people': How Georgia's Gen Z are taking on teargas, rubber bullets and the threat of arrest

On Thursday, Tbilisi's opera house was filled with the country's intellectual and business elite. But the people rallying on the streets against the foreign influence law are mostly young. My daughter, Ana, who is 23, joined me.

Since the first attempt to impose the law last year, Gen Z have taken the initiative in resisting it. For over a month, university and high school students have marched vigorously, singing, dancing and expressing themselves freely and creatively. Much better informed, connected and digitally knowledgable than their elders, these young people have demonstrated unbelievable organising skills.

With no formal leadership, these diverse groups of young people have formed broad and efficient volunteer movements. They distribute water, food, emergency supplies, and first aid. They also create groups on social media, conduct advisory campaigns on how to stay safe during the police crackdown, and help protesters from outside the city with travel and accommodation.

They do all this with ready hugs, smiles and offers of help. At first glance, it looks like a youth festival is happening on the streets of Georgia. But each night their peaceful parties turn into an authoritarian nightmare of arrests and tussles with government forces using teargas and rubber bullets.

Civil society and free media provide the checks and balances in the Georgian state system, and western-funded institutions are effective remedies against the consolidation of authoritarianism. Thanks to the media and NGOs, Georgian society is well aware of the dark sides of the governing system - full-scale oligarchic crony capitalism, corruption, and "state capture".

Every day, high-ranking western officials call on the ruling party not to resort to these severe mechanisms for controlling society and the media, not to jeopardise Georgia's fragile democracy. The EU has warned the government that if it adopts the foreign influence bill, negotiations on Georgia joining the EU will be at risk. John Kirby of the US national security council said the White House was "deeply concerned" at the bill because of "what it could do in terms of stifling dissent and free speech".

GD officials continue to ignore these concerns. Protesters believe the party is a puppet in the hands of its founder, oligarch and former prime minister Bidzina Ivanishvili.

Since Georgia won independence, its EU ambitions have grown steadily. Most citizens want their country to join the EU and Nato. For Georgia, turning its back on the west would mean returning to Russian domination. Russia can use its significantly bigger military and economic potential against the sovereignty of Georgia, and still effectively occupies 20% of our territory.

Civil society and independent journalism died out in Russia after it introduced a "foreign agent" law in 2012. This is why protesters are calling the Georgian bill "Russian".

In the opera house the seats reserved for government officials were empty. Many politicians are reluctant to appear in public, as they are highly unpopular.

Spring 2024 has been marked by an unprecedented outcry. Given that our population is less than 4 million (a million Georgians have emigrated, mainly to western countries), the sight of thousands of protesters on the streets of several cities must be alarming for the government.

But while it continues pursuing controversial laws, we will continue to put on gas masks and goggles and stand with family and friends for freedom and democracy.