The victory did not come easily to Georgians, who faced riot police and water cannons during two nights of violent protests against a law they feared would threaten their hopes of joining the European Union.
While more than three-quarters of Georgians support EU and NATO membership, protesters believe the ruling Georgian Dream party is deliberately trying to veer off a pro-Western political path to avoid damaging relations with the Kremlin.
The latest trigger for anti-government demonstrations was a Russian-style "foreign agent" identification bill that many feared could be used to silence journalists and civil activists ahead of elections expected next year.
Davit Korbaja, a 39-year-old lawyer, came to the protests carrying his son on his back, wrapped in the Georgian flag.
"I came for a better, European future for my child. Because of our independence," he told Politiko on Wednesday evening. He was furious at the violent dispersal of the protesters.
"They want to instill fear. I cannot consider them a pro-European government. Such a number of people who come out to protest clearly says what the people want," he said.
The ruling party announced yesterday that it will "unconditionally" withdraw the draft law, citing the need to reduce "conflict" in society, while condemning the "lies" told by the "radical opposition" about the draft.
Opposition leaders, however, have announced that they will not give up their protests until the government formally rejects the law and releases all those detained during the protests.
The Black Sea nation of 3,7 million people has seen frequent political turmoil since it gained independence from the Soviet Union in 1991, including a peaceful "Rose Revolution" in 2003 and a war against Russia five years later.
The proposed law would require Georgian organizations that receive more than 20 percent of their funding from abroad to register as "foreign agents" or face fines.
Government officials said the proposals were necessary to rid Georgia's political scene of "foreign influence" and "spies", arguing that Georgians have a right to know who funds NGOs working there. Parliament leaders also said the proposals would help expose critics of the influential Georgian Orthodox Church.
The opposition claims that it is a local version of a Russian law that President Vladimir Putin has used for more than a decade to persecute dissidents.
"It was a Russian law that had to be withdrawn and that should not have passed through parliament under any circumstances," Nika Oboladze, a 32-year-old student from Tbilisi, told Reuters.
"Those who proposed the law are responsible for all this chaos. Because 90 percent of Georgians support European integration and nothing should stop that," he added.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said that Moscow was "concerned" by the events in Tbilisi and that the Georgian proposal had nothing to do with Russian laws.
"The Kremlin did not inspire anything there, the Kremlin has absolutely nothing to do with it ... If I understood correctly, one version was very similar to the equivalent law in the United States," Peskov said.
Parliament initially approved the bill on Tuesday, but tens of thousands of protesters gathered outside parliament. Some threw incendiary bombs, stones and plastic bottles at the police. The authorities announced that dozens of protesters were detained.
Tensions began to boil over on Wednesday evening, when the deadline given by opposition politicians to the government to withdraw the proposal expired. Police used tear gas, water cannons and stun grenades to disperse the demonstrations.
Fifty-eight-year-old Tsici Tsitvaja came to the protests with a Ukrainian flag.
"Are we being arrested because we don't want to adopt the mentality of our enemy?" she asked.
"I am very angry, this government should go," she told Politico and added that "the future of Georgia is decided in Ukraine."
"They cannot erase our desire for freedom from our heads and tear it from our hearts. I'm not afraid of arrest. Neither a bullet nor tear gas can stop me. Only through me dead," she said.
There are two separate but similar versions of the draft law on foreign agents that have been introduced in parliament. Deputies cannot just withdraw a proposal that passed the first reading. To overturn the proposal, the parliament must hold a second plenary debate.
The second proposal, which according to its initiators is a copy of the American FARA (Foreign Agents Registration Act) which was passed in the USA in 1938, can be withdrawn by its signatories. Although they assure that the proposal cannot be described as a "Russian law" because it is American, critics say that it is even more dangerous in the Georgian context.
EU and US officials have warned that adopting either proposal would harm Georgia's Euro-Atlantic aspirations. The ruling party, however, insists that they would enable greater transparency regarding the financing of media and organizations, and that it is therefore "European".
The head of the Georgian Dream parliamentary group, Mamuka Mdinaradze, promised yesterday that the proposal will be withdrawn at the second plenary debate on March 21.
The EU delegation in Georgia welcomed the decision to withdraw the draft law and encouraged "all political leaders in Georgia to continue pro-EU reforms in an inclusive and constructive manner."
The bill deepened the rift between Georgian Dream, which has a majority in parliament, and pro-European President Salome Zourabishvili, who has distanced herself from the party since being elected with its support in 2018.
Zurabishvili said she would veto the proposal, even though parliament can override it.
The closeness of the ruling party to the Kremlin
Georgian society is anti-Russian because of Moscow's support for separatists in the two breakaway regions of Abkhazia and South Ossetia. The two countries, which went to war in 2008, do not have formal diplomatic relations.
Opponents say the Georgian Dream party has close ties to the Kremlin. Its founder, Bidzina Ivanishvili, is the richest Georgian, and he amassed his fortune in Russia during the chaotic privatizations of the 1990s.
Georgia did not impose sanctions on Moscow over the war in Ukraine, despite mass protests in that country calling for a tougher stance against Russia's invasion.
All major parties, including Georgian Dream, support Georgia's entry into the EU and NATO. Critics say that the ruling party supports EU membership only in words.
Last year, Brussels refused to grant Georgia candidate status along with Moldova and Ukraine due to failure to implement political and judicial reforms.
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