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

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

100 years later, Georgia’s pro-Western president refuses to step down, arguing that he is the last legitimate institution in his country,

On Sunday, his six-year term as President is set to end. According to the new presidential election system, on that day he will be replaced by former Manchester City player Mikheil Kavelashvili, who was elected with the support of the ruling Georgian Dream party.

Zourabichvili, 72, has criticized his election under the electoral college system in which he was the sole candidate as a scandal.

When he became president in 2018 he was endorsed by Georgian Dream, but he denounced their victory in the election at the end of October as a “special operation of Russia” and supported the nightly demonstrations of the EU outside the parliament.

The government says that if he refuses to resign, then he has committed a crime.

If they force him to leave, he says the party that ordered the coup will end and Georgia will have given its power to the party he accuses of serving Moscow.

Salome Zourabichvili was born in France in 1952 into a prominent family of Georgian émigrés. His grandfather, who was a minister in the independent Georgian government, fled to France in 1921.

Georgia, then under the rule of the Soviet Union, was very visible in his childhood. It was “a fictional place, only found in books,” he said in a 2004 interview.

Although he grew up in a Georgian cultural environment, speaking the language at home and attending the Georgian Orthodox Church, it is easy to adapt to the French culture. He went to France’s elite schools, including Sciences Po, which often feeds civil servants.

He was very successful, serving as the French ambassador for almost 30 years. But throughout, his real interest remained in removing the foreign country of his ancestors from Russian influence and bringing it closer to the West.

“He sees it as his life’s work to bring Georgia to Europe. Everything else for him is always secondary,” said Alexandre Crevaux-Asatiani, a former assistant to Zourabichvili.

In 2003, he was appointed French ambassador to Georgia. A year later, he was granted Georgian citizenship and became the foreign minister under President Mikheil Saakashvili. After his dismissal in 2005, he became involved in the politics of his host country, founding a new party.

Saakashvili’s regime ended in 2012 and the Georgian Dream has been in power ever since. The party’s founder, billionaire Bidzina Ivanishvili, is seen by Georgians as the most powerful man in their country. With a quirk of fate, he is also French, becoming a citizen in 2010.

Supported by Ivanishvili’s party leadership, Zourabichvili was initially unpopular among pro-Western youth. A popular television program made fun of him for suspending Georgian, spoken with a strong French accent.

He was seen as a supporter of the ruling party, unpopular with many young people, and blamed the brief war with Russia in 2008 on Georgia for allowing anger.

But as his term as president progressed, Georgia Dream turned authoritarian and anti-white, disrupting corporations and non-governmental organizations. It has refused to join Western sanctions against Russia after its full-scale invasion of Ukraine, and has called the West a “world war party”, and has scoffed at its intention to join the EU and Nato.

Zourabichvili publicly disparaged the government, thinking he had the support of the majority of Georgians.

He promised to block a ruling on “foreign influence” that was linked to Russian law passed under President Vladimir Putin, but the government passed it anyway, defying weeks of protests.

“Georgia’s choice is between freedom or slavery, Europe or Russia,” he said in April.

He often addresses the protesters who have been outside the parliament every night for a month, calling them the national conscience against the Russian-backed government.

Last month he asked the riot police, who are criticized by violent critics: “Are you serving in Russia or Georgia?”

Many protestors, who initially distrusted the president for replacing him with the support of the Georgian Dream, began to respect his nonsensical opposition.

“No one expected him to be this good. He shows our values,” said Irakli, 34, who has been a regular performer. “He encourages us to fight.”

Before the October elections, the government tried to impeach him for meeting EU leaders without the government’s permission. In the end the effort failed but it was a sign of the conflict to come.

Zourabichvili called the elections, which returned the Georgian Dream to power, “completely fake”. He agreed with the opposition’s demands for a re-run, which angered senior party leaders.

Now he faces his biggest challenge to date, as Georgian Dream prepares to install his successor, Mikheil Kavelashvili, as president.

But Zourabichvili insisted that he would not go, setting up a possible legal challenge. Georgian Prime Minister Irakli Kobakhidze threatened to arrest him.

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

The government should force him to leave in various ways, said Petre Tsiskarishvili of the opposition United National Movement.

Knowing that they don’t want to make him a political martyr and raise his profile, it would avoid a high-profile arrest, he added, perhaps just locking him up outside where he lives in the Orbeliani Palace.

His doubt will continue. Some critics criticize him for giving a legitimate European face to the long-running Georgian Dream regime, refusing to challenge Ivanishvili until a few months ago.

But in a country where pro-European forces are often fractured, Zourabichvili’s supporters say he needs to step out of his role as an anti-government activist.

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