Georgia’s pro-Western president Zourabichvili refuses to leave, prepares for showdown

Salome Zourabichvili’s family fled Georgia in 1921 after Soviet forces ended the country’s three-year experiment in independence from Russia.

A century later, Georgia’s pro-Western president refuses to leave office, arguing that she is the last legitimate institution in her country.

Her six-year term as president will end on Sunday. According to a new selection system for the head of state, he will be replaced that day by former Manchester City footballer Mikheil Kavelashvili, chosen with the support of the ruling Georgian Dream party.

Zourabichvili, 72, denounced his election under an electoral college system in which he was the only candidate as a farce.

When he became president in 2018, he was backed by Georgian Dream, but has since condemned his disputed election victory in late October as a “Russian special operation” and backed nightly pro-EU protests outside parliament.

The government says that if he refuses to leave office he will be committing a crime.

If she is expelled, she says the ruling party’s takeover of the state will be complete and Georgia will have handed over its sovereignty to a party it accuses of serving Moscow.

Salomé Zourabichvili was born in France in 1952 into a prominent Georgian émigré family. His grandfather, a minister in the government of briefly independent Georgia, fled to France in 1921.

Georgia, then under Soviet rule, became very important in its childhood. It was a “mythical place, which only existed in books,” he said in a 2004 interview.

Although he grew up in a culturally Georgian environment, speaking the language at home and attending Georgian Orthodox church services, he integrated easily into French culture. He attended France’s elite schools, including Sciences Po, traditionally where the country’s top public officials are trained.

She stood out and served as a French diplomat for almost 30 years. But throughout, his true passion remained freeing his parents’ mysterious home country from the influence of Russia and bringing it closer to the West.

“She considers her life’s mission to be bringing Georgia to Europe. Everything else for her has always been secondary,” said Alexandre Crevaux-Asatiani, Zourabichvili’s former adviser.

In 2003, she was appointed French ambassador to Georgia. A year later, she was granted Georgian citizenship and appointed Foreign Minister during Mikheil Saakashvili’s presidency. Fired in 2005, she took on an increasingly prominent role in the politics of her adopted country and founded a new party.

Saakashvili’s government ended in 2012 and Georgian Dream has been in power since then. The party’s founder, billionaire Bidzina Ivanishvili, is seen by Georgians as the most powerful man in their country. By chance, he is also French and obtained citizenship in 2010.

Backed for the presidency by Ivanishvili’s party, Zourabichvili was initially unpopular among the country’s pro-Western youth. A popular television show mocked his faltering Georgian, spoken with a thick French accent.

She was seen as aligned with the ruling party, unpopular with many young people, and blamed a brief war with Russia in 2008 on Georgia allowing itself to be provoked.

But as his presidential term progressed, Georgian Dream took an increasingly authoritarian and anti-Western turn, cracking down on civil society and NGOs. He refused to join Western sanctions against Russia after the full-scale invasion of Ukraine, and called the West the “global war party,” mocking its stated goal of joining the EU and NATO.

Zourabichvili openly defied the government, believing that he had the support of the majority of Georgia’s population.

He vowed to veto a “foreign influence” bill that mirrored Russian legislation passed under President Vladimir Putin, but the government passed it anyway, defying weeks of protests.

“The choice for Georgia is between independence or slavery, Europe or Russia,” he said in April.

He has often addressed protesters who have gathered every night for a month in front of parliament, portraying them as the conscience of the nation against a Russia-friendly government.

Last month he asked riot police, accused by the opposition of brutalizing protesters: “Are you serving Russia or Georgia?”

Many protesters, initially distrustful of the president for coming to power with the backing of Georgian Dream, came to respect her outspoken opposition.

“No one expected her to be so good. She reflects our values,” said Irakli, a 34-year-old man who has protested regularly. “She motivates us to fight.”

Before the disputed elections in October, the government tried to charge her with meeting with EU leaders without government authorization. Ultimately, the effort failed, but it was a sign of the confrontation to come.

Zourabichvili called the elections that returned Georgian Dream to power “totally falsified.” He backed opposition parties’ calls for a rerun, drawing the ire of senior party leaders.

He now faces perhaps his biggest challenge yet, as Georgian Dream prepares to install his replacement, Mikheil Kavelashvili, as president.

But Zourabichvili has insisted he will not go, likely sparking a constitutional crisis. The Prime Minister of the Georgian Dream, Irakli Kobakhidze, has threatened to arrest her.

“Let’s see where he ends up, behind bars or outside,” he told reporters this week.

The government is likely to force her to leave one way or another, said Petre Tsiskarishvili of the opposition United National Movement.

Mindful of not wanting to turn her into a political martyr and further raise her profile, he could avoid a high-profile arrest, he added, perhaps by simply denying her access to his official residence at the Orbeliani Palace.

Doubts towards her will persist. Some in the opposition blame her for putting a pro-European face on Georgian Dream’s authoritarian turn for too long, refraining from criticizing Ivanishvili until just a few months ago.

But in a country where pro-European forces have often been fractured, Zourabichvili’s supporters say she is likely to emerge from her term as a key government opponent.

“Even if she is arrested, she will still be considered the legitimate president of Georgia. There is no doubt about it,” said Crevaux-Asatiani, a former aide to the president.