It’s a tense day for a country going through a serious political crisis. This Sunday, Georgia inaugurated its new president, Mikheïl Kavelashvili, a former footballer known for his ultraconservative and anti-Western positions.
Elected on December 14 by an electoral college controlled by the ruling party, Georgian Dream, he took the oath of office in Parliament in the morning to succeed Salomé Zourabichvili, opponent of the government in place. “Our history clearly shows that after countless struggles to defend our homeland and traditions, peace has always been one of the main goals and values of the Georgian people,” Mikheil Kavelashvili said in his speech , while his camp presents itself as a bulwark against the West which would like to drag Tbilisi into the war between Russia and Ukraine.
In the process, thousands of pro-European demonstrators gathered in front of the Parliament in Tbilisi, the focal point of the demonstrations which have punctuated life in the Georgian capital for weeks. They denounced the inauguration of the new president, loyal to the ruling party, before dispersing peacefully, some promising to demonstrate again in the evening.
The outgoing president still calls herself “legitimate”
After leaving doubt about her intentions, the outgoing president finally announced that she was leaving the presidential palace in the morning, where at least 2,000 of her supporters had gathered. In a speech given on the square, she assured that she was the “only legitimate president” of the country and promised to continue the fight.
Georgia, a country in the Caucasus and the former USSR, has been in turmoil since the legislative elections of October 26, won by the Georgian Dream party, in power since 2012, but denounced as rigged by the pro-Western opposition . They, their supporters in the street and former president Salomé Zourabichvili are demanding a new election. The ruling party denies any fraud and accuses the opposition of wanting to provoke a revolution, according to it, financed from abroad.
The situation was exacerbated on November 28 when Prime Minister Irakli Kobakhidzé announced that he would postpone his country’s EU integration efforts until 2028, triggering daily pro-European demonstrations which have not stopped since and which bring together every day thousands of people.
With the departure of Salomé Zourabichvili, the demonstrators lose their main support within the institutions. Although limited by restricted prerogatives, the outgoing president gave all her support to the streets and used her influence, particularly internationally, to increase pressure on the Georgian Dream and try to obtain the organization of new legislative elections. , which the government continues to refuse.
