France says Georgia's "foreign agents" bill goes against EU values

Georgia's draft law on "foreign agents" goes against the European Union's founding values, the spokesperson of France's ministry of foreign affairs said on Thursday, urging local authorities to respect people's right to peaceful demonstration.

The bill "runs counter to the values on which the European Union is founded and to which the Georgian people have shown their deep attachment", the spokesperson said.

Ever-growing numbers of protesters have been taking to the street nightly for almost a month, with a heaving crowd of tens of thousands shutting down central Tblisi on Wednesday, in what was the largest anti-government demonstration so far.