Georgia’s pro-Western president Zurabishvili refuses to leave and prepares for a showdown

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

A century later, Georgia’s pro-Western president refuses to step down, claiming he is the country’s last legitimate institution,

Her six-year term as president ends on Sunday. According to the new system for electing the head of state on that day, she will be replaced by former Manchester City footballer Mikhail Kavelashvili, elected with the support of the ruling Georgian Dream party.

Zurabishvili, 72, denounced his election under the electoral college system, in which he was the only candidate, as a travesty.

When she became president in 2018, she was backed by Georgian Dream, but has since denounced their disputed election victory in late October as a “Russian special operation” and supported overnight pro-EU protests outside parliament.

The government says that if she refuses to step down, she will be committing a crime.

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

Salome Zurabishvili was born in France in 1952. in a famous family of Georgian emigrants. Her grandfather, a minister in the government of briefly independent Georgia, fled to France in 1921.

Georgia, then under Soviet rule, loomed large in her childhood. It was “a mythical place that only existed in books,” she said in a 2004 interview.

Although she grew up in a cultural Georgian environment, speaking the language at home and attending Georgian Orthodox church services, she easily integrated into French culture. She attended elite French schools, including Sciences Po, traditionally a feeder for the country’s top civil servants.

She distinguished herself by being a French diplomat for nearly 30 years. But all the while, her true passion remains to free her parents’ mysterious country of origin from Russian influence and bring it closer to the West.

“She sees her life’s mission as bringing Georgia into Europe. Everything else has always been secondary to her,” said Alexander Krevo-Assatiani, a former aide to Zurabishvili.

In 2003 was appointed ambassador of France to Georgia. A year later, she received Georgian citizenship and became foreign minister under President Mikheil Saakashvili. Dismissed in 2005, she took an increasingly prominent role in the politics of her adopted country, founding a new party.

Saakashvili’s rule ended in 2012. and since then “Georgian Dream” has been in power. The party’s founder, billionaire Bidzina Ivanishvili, is considered by Georgians to be the most influential person in the country. Coincidentally, he is also French, having taken citizenship in 2010.

Backed for the presidency by Ivanishvili’s party, Zurabishvili was initially unpopular among the country’s pro-Western youth. A popular TV show mocked her suspension in Georgian, spoken with a heavy French accent.

She was seen as a supporter of the ruling party, unpopular with many young people, and she blamed Georgia for a brief war with Russia in 2008 that it allowed itself to be provoked.

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

Zurabishvili openly opposed the government, believing he had the support of the majority of Georgia’s population.

She vowed to veto the “foreign influence” bill, which mirrors Russian legislation passed under President Vladimir Putin, but the government passed it anyway, despite weeks of protests.

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

She often addressed the protesters who appeared every night for a month in front of parliament, portraying them as the nation’s conscience against the Russia-friendly government.

Last month she asked riot police accused by the opposition of brutalizing protesters: “Do you serve Russia or Georgia?”

Many protesters, initially distrustful of the president for coming to power with the support of Georgian Dream, have come to respect her open opposition.

“Nobody expected her to be this good. She reflects our values,” said Irakli, 34, who regularly demonstrates. “She motivates us to fight.

Before the disputed October election, the government tried to impeach her for meeting EU leaders without government permission. Ultimately the effort failed, but it was an indication of the clash to come.

Zurabishvili called the elections that returned “Georgian Dream” to power “totally falsified”. She supported opposition parties’ calls for re-election, drawing the ire of senior party leaders.

Now she faces perhaps her biggest challenge yet, as Georgian Dream prepares to appoint her deputy, Mikhail Kavelashvili, as president.

But Zurabishvili insisted he would not go, setting up a likely constitutional crisis. Georgian Dream Prime Minister Irakli Kobakhidze threatened her with arrest.

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

The government will probably force her out one way or another, said Petre Tsiskarishvili of the opposition United National Movement.

Mindful that he did not want to make her a political martyr and raise her profile even further, it could avoid a high-profile arrest, he added, perhaps just locking her out of her official residence at the Orbeliani Palace.

Doubts about her will remain. Some in the opposition accuse her of 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 are often fractured, Zurabishvili’s supporters say she is likely to emerge from her term as a key opponent of the government.

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