“I embody the continuity of the State against an illegitimate Parliament”

Thousands of demonstrators continue to gather every evening in the Georgian capital, Tbilisi, and mobilizations also continue across the country to demand new legislative elections. While the legislators of the ruling party, Georgian Dream, must choose a new president to replace Salomé Zourabichvili, the head of state assures franceinfo that she will remain the only leader of the country despite everything.

Franceinfo: You were in Paris this weekend. What was the nature of your discussions with President Emmanuel Macron?

Salomé Zourabichvili: It would not be correct to recount my conversations with the President of the Republic or with others. I explained the situation to him. He considered several forms in which he could play a role, and we will see in the days and weeks to come.

Are you expecting sanctions at European level?

On this issue, it is clear that the European Union has its own difficulties, those of reaching agreement at twenty-seven. This is one of the major problems of his policy, foreign in particular. There comes a time when speeches are no longer enough. You have to be able to make decisions. Today, in practice, the sanctions that may be considered by the European Union are already late. They will target violations of human rights, and therefore the perpetrators of repression. But these are people who are not very sensitive, I would say, to the type of sanctions that can be exercised on them. They don't travel to Europe every morning.

Time is against you. In four days, the name of your successor will be known…

He is known [Mikhaïl Kavelachvili, ancien footballeur international et membre du parti Pouvoir au peuple, émanation de Rêve géorgien]. There is no suspense and surprise in this type of election, because it is decided in advance.

Will you leave the presidency on December 29, as provided for in the texts?

I will always be president. I am the only legitimate president of this country since Parliament is doubly illegitimate. First, he was not elected in an election that took into account the votes of Georgians. The Georgian population does not recognize themselves in these elections. Then, Parliament was convened, contrary to the Constitution, without my convening it. However, no one else, in the Constitution, is designated to convene the first session of Parliament in my place.

This Parliament will elect a president who is in reality the man of the same single party which today controls all of the country's institutions. That's their choice. I embody a legitimacy born from an election by universal suffrage and I embody the continuity of the State, today invested by a single party.

Physically, will you still be at the presidential palace on this date?

You will see then where I will be.

The state security service has warned of increased violence in the coming days during this election, even anticipating “two to three deaths”.

I am warning today against statements that are in reality apocalyptic scenarios to terrorize people, to try to dissuade them from peacefully protesting, which they have been doing for thirteen days now. [mardi soir]. It is not the role of the national security services to frighten and terrorize people. Their role is to ensure security. That's what we ask them.

Aren't you afraid that continuing to hold this presidency will add to the chaos?

But we are already in total political chaos. There are elections which are not recognized, there is a single party which is usurping power. More “political chaos” than that, I don’t know. These protests are peaceful. You will notice that this is not France and that we don't break cars and windows. These are peaceful demonstrations which express only one demand, a political demand: new elections. There is no demand for an insurrection, no one is saying that the Georgian Dream party must leave the political landscape.

Faced with such a deep crisis, there is no other political and peaceful solution than elections, with negotiations on when and how they will be held. And if there are to be negotiations, there must be an interlocutor who represents this population who is in the street. I am this interlocutor.

Are the channels completely cut off with the government?

They have been broken up for three years. The Prime Minister left here saying he would never come back. And my latest attempts to send messages to Bidzina Ivanishvili [oligarque président d’honneur du parti au pouvoir Rêve géorgien]who is the only one who decides anything in this country, dates back to approximately the same date. I asked him for a discussion, because I no longer understood what was going on.

You have just paid tribute to several journalists during a ceremony. Some were injured by police or masked men. How do you describe the current climate in your country?

Terror. It is terror on a civilian population which also peacefully demonstrates its disagreement with the decision of a Prime Minister who wants to force Georgia to break with its European destiny and turn towards Russia. For once, this EU candidate status, which the country had just obtained, was truly the Georgian dream. That's the Rubicon. The Georgian population has never accepted this and they will not accept it.

Is there still political space for oppositions?

I don't know how the opposition will continue its work. Today, the real opposition is in the streets. It is this new generation which is taking charge of its future, extremely educated, with a real, structured and constructed political discourse. These people will take control. I don't know yet how: it will depend, once again, on the elections, on the time that will be given for the formation, possibly, of new parties. It is clear that the old parties have lost control. Even if they boycott Parliament, they are in line. They are no longer the ones who decide. There is a great rejection of all this and we now need the emergence of another force.

You launched a charter, signed by the opposition coalitions. Do you have any regrets about the legislative campaign?

We could have done better, but in reality, it wouldn't have changed much. In hindsight, I think we were like a fly in a glass. We faced a special operation prepared for a very long time through changes to electoral law or even other unrelated laws.

The adoption of Russian law [sur les agents de l’étranger, en mai] sparked major protests. We therefore thought that the opposition would win the elections simply by mobilization, because there were more people, and that we therefore did not have to worry about possible fraud. This was all entirely expected. There was no other reason for the reintroduction of Russian law, no one needed it.

The Prime Minister's recent declaration to suspend the EU accession process is a new provocation. No doubt he thought that people would no longer have any reserves of energy after the spring demonstrations, and that it would be easy to break the movement, definitively this time. It was a bad calculation.

An amendment is being studied to deprive you of state protection at the end of your mandate. Are you thinking of leaving the country?

Certainly not. And my protection is in the streets. I know that I am very protected, very supported, and the formal protection of a security service changes nothing. This is what I said today to the Europeans: if your support comes, as in the case of the opponent [Edmundo Gonzalez Urrutia] to Venezuelan President Maduro, once he is in exile, there is no point. I don't plan to leave the country and you need me with my legitimacy here. So recognize me while there is time!