Georgia now has two presidents, one oriented towards Russia, the other towards Europe, each disputing the other’s legitimacy. Elected by an electoral college controlled by the ruling Georgian Dream party, former pro-Russian footballer Mikheïl Kavelashvili, 53, was sworn in on Sunday December 29. He succeeds Salomé Zourabichvili, a 72-year-old former French diplomat, who claims to remain the “only legitimate president” despite the end of his mandate.
This is the first time in the history of this former Soviet republic in the Caucasus that the president was not elected by universal suffrage. Mr. Kavelashvili’s inauguration was held behind closed doors in Parliament, for fear of protests from the pro-European opposition. Tellingly, contrary to tradition, no European flag was in the room, although it hangs everywhere else in the country – integration into the European Union (EU) and the Atlantic Treaty Organization North (NATO) is an objective enshrined in the Constitution. “It was surreal, and more like a funeral than an inauguration”observes Hans Gutbrod, researcher and professor at Ilia State University in Tbilisi.
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