His presidency was due to end on December 29 this year, but Salome Zurabishvili still claims that her successor cannot rule because he was not directly elected and was chosen by majority politicians. Zurabishvili accused the pro-Russian government of falsifying the results of the parliamentary elections and together with other citizens took to the streets. Will it remain as a “symbolic city” or will it be able to unite democratic forces in its country?
Salome Zurabishvili’s role as president of Georgia has long been symbolic, and her powers have been seen as limited. However, Zurabishvili has recently become the face of public protests, the direct cause of which was the controversial results of the parliamentary elections on October 26, writes the website of the Russian branch of Deutsche Welle radio.
Protests in Georgia also occurred due to the decision of the pro-Russian government in Tbilisi to suspend negotiations with the European Union regarding the country’s membership. Zurabishvili called these protests a “resistance movement”. He was the first president of Georgia to directly participate in the protests.
Hello Zurabishvili. Photo from November 2024 DAVID MDZINARISHVILI/PAP
Hundreds of thousands of Georgians have been taking to the streets of Tbilisi and other cities of their country for almost a month. They suffer not only from the cold, but also from the brutal actions of the police, who use water spray and tear gas against them. After the ruling Georgian Dream party introduced an authoritarian style of government, pro-Western Georgians see Zurabishvili as the last ray of hope, writes Deutsche Welle.
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French diplomat
Salome Zurabishvili was born in Paris in a family of Georgian political immigrants. In 1921, after the Bolshevik troops entered Tiflis, his family fled from their homeland.
After studying in Paris and New York, Zurabishvili devoted more than 30 years of his life to French diplomacy, working in the US, Italy and Chad, before returning to his homeland, where he was the French ambassador to Georgia. In 2004, with the mutual consent of the presidents of France and Georgia, he accepted the citizenship of Georgia and became the minister of foreign affairs of Georgia.
One of his main achievements as the head of Georgian diplomacy is his contribution to the process of negotiations and reaching an agreement on the withdrawal of Russian bases from the territory of Georgia, – the Russian section of the BBC recalls.
Georgia suspended negotiations on membership in the European Union. This decision caused public protests
Connecting to the Georgian Dream
Zurabishvili was once considered a supporter of the Georgian Dream party. He ran for president in 2018 with the support of this pro-Russian group and won the second round of the election against Grigol Vashadze, who is associated with the United National Movement. However, already, analysts in Tbilisi predicted that “it is unlikely that he will agree with Bidzina Ivanishvili’s party on everything.” – No one knows what will happen in the future, because Zurabishvili easily gets into conflict and conflict with others, so, in my opinion, this will not be a great gift for the Georgian Dream, – said the famous Georgian political analyst Korneli Kakachiya at the time .
Zurabishvili’s relationship with Georgian Dream gradually cooled, and after the Russian invasion of Ukraine in 2022, it completely changed, as the group began to align its policies more and more with Moscow and presented itself as the “only party” capable of avoid a “Georgian dream”. a new war with Russia, which has already occupied a part of Georgia.
Zurabishvili has distanced himself from the Georgian dream as he defends his country’s European future, we read on the Deutsche Welle website.
Salome Zurabishvili during an anti-government protest in Tbilisi. 28 December EPA photo
“Symbolic face” or “active opposition leader”?
The presidential term of Salome Zurabishvili was supposed to end on December 29 of this year. On this day, Mikhail Kavelshvili, who was elected with the support of Dream of Georgia and by the electoral college consisting of members of parliament and representatives of local authorities, was sworn in as the president of Georgia. Zurabishvili left the presidential palace and joined the protesters. He also declared that he had the “legitimacy of the government” because Kavelashvili was not elected in direct elections, but was chosen by the majority politicians.
Specialists in Tbilisi ask the following question: what is the future? Will Zurabishvili become a “symbolic person” or an “active leader of the opposition”? – All the work that Salome Zurabishvili has already done and what she still needs is very important. He may not be the president anymore, but he has already become the leader of the opposition and the voice of the people. His most important achievement is that by coming to power, according to the will of the people, he informed Europe that the Georgian people want to be together with Europe, says the former minister of reintegration of Georgia, Paata Zakareishvili.
– Now the most important thing is to hold new parliamentary elections. Zurabishvili, even if he remains a former president, will fulfill the same two tasks: he will help solve the internal political problems of his country and he will boldly talk to the democratic world, Zakareishvili believes.
“Torch Bearer”
– Zurabishvili became a coordinator, a person who unites democratic forces in the country. This is important because he is the last president of Georgia to be directly elected by the nation – Korneli Kakacia is currently speaking about him, who already predicted his conflict with Georgian Dream in 2018. – His relations with Western leaders, high-ranking officials of the European Union and France helped him become a “torch bearer”, a leading force for pro-European elections in Georgia, Kakachiya adds.
Political scientist Gia Nodia believes that Zurabishvili’s actions “may become an additional impetus for social protest”. However, in his opinion, in order to return the current situation in the country, “some crises should start in the government”. – It is hard to imagine that Bidzina Ivanishvili (the leader of Georgian Dream – ed.) will come to his senses, regret something, that his outlook or that of Prime Minister Irakli Kobakhidze will change. Nodia added that the existing trends of the crisis in the government and, more importantly, in its repressive apparatus should be deepened.
Main photo source: DAVID MDZINARISHVILI/PAP
