Salome Zourabichvili remains Georgia’s legitimate president

In appointing a far-right former footballer to the country’s presidency, the ruling Georgian Dream party has scored yet another own goal.

Georgia has history with former footballers becoming politicians. Mayor of the capital, Tbilisi, is Kakha Kaladze, whose storied career took him from Dinamo Tbilisi—via Dynamo Kyiv—to Champions League honours with Milan in 2003 and 2007. 

A hero to millions in his playing days, these days Kaladze is less popular. A totem of the ruling Georgian Dream party, Kaladze regularly rails against Western decadence and interference in Georgia’s internal affairs while his beautiful wife, a fashion designer, holds runway shows in Milan and Paris. 

Not for nothing does the list of those on whom Georgia’s protesters want the West to impose personal sanctions include the Kaladzes. 

Georgian Dream is clearly happy with Kaladze’s service, however, for it has now turned to another, albeit far less celebrated former footballer to be the country’s appointed president. 

Forward Mikheil Kavelashvili briefly (and unsuccessfully, scoring just three goals in 28 appearances) played for Manchester City in the 1990s, but spent most of his career in second-tier leagues, notably Switzerland.

Now, he is set to become president, although Georgia’s outgoing pro-Western president, Salome Zourabichvili (ironically elected with the support of Georgian Dream, but now in direct opposition to the party), has condemned Kavelashvili’s appointment as a ‘travesty’, insisting she holds Georgia’s only remaining legitimate institution. 

We agree. Hitherto elected by popular vote, Kavelashvili was elected on December 14 through direct ballot by a 300-member electoral college made up of MPs and local officials loyal to Georgian Dream from around the country. 

Given that Georgia’s opposition parties are boycotting parliament in the wake of what they say was a rigged parliamentary election in October, no opposition members took part in Kavelashvili’s appointment. 

Well-known for his far-right views, Kavelashvili was one of the authors of a controversial law requiring civil society organisations that receive more than 20 per cent of their funding from abroad to register as ‘pursuing the interest of a foreign power’.  

His appointment is likely to lead to a new wave of protests throughout Georgia, which have now been taking place for more than three weeks. Riot police have used water cannons and tear gas almost daily to disperse and beat scores of protesters, who are unhappy with both the irregularities that marked the parliamentary election, and with Georgian Dream’s recent decision to halt EU accession procedures in favour of closer ties with Russia. 

Zourabichvili’s mandate ends on December 29. She has nevertheless vowed to remain in office until a legitimate parliament and president are elected. “I remain your president—there is no legitimate parliament and thus no legitimate [presidential] election or inauguration,” she told protesters as she joined them outside parliament on December 14.

She has our full support.

Photo: Salome Zourabichvili official Facebook page.

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