French-born Georgian president refuses to leave office

Salome Zourabichvili has refused to recognize the legitimacy of the newly elected parliament and says that it cannot choose her successor.

Georgian President Salome Zourabichvili will not step down from her position despite the end of her mandate in December, she said in a video address on Saturday, explaining that she does not recognize the legitimacy of the newly-formed parliament and intends to stay in office until new elections.

“I remain your President! There is no legitimate parliament that will elect a new president,” she said in a video published on her Facebook page. “My mandate continues until there is a legitimately elected parliament that will legitimately elect a President who will replace me!”

Under the 2017 Georgian Constitution, the head of state is elected by an electoral college consisting of 300 members. Half of them are MPs, and another half are representatives of various Georgian regions. The next presidential vote is scheduled for December 14. Whoever wins is reportedly expected to be inaugurated before the end of the year.

In October, the South Caucasus nation also held parliamentary elections. The Georgian Dream party, which seeks to establish pragmatic relations with all the country’s neighbors, including Russia, emerged victorious with nearly 54% of the vote. The pro-Western opposition parties have refused to recognize the results, sparking a wave of street protests.

The French-born Zourabichvili – a career diplomat for Paris who acquired Georgian citizenship in her 50s – condemned the October election as a “Russian-style” operation, claiming that Georgian Dream is steering the nation towards Moscow and away from that of the EU. She also called for mass protests.

A new wave of demonstrations was sparked this week by the Georgian government’s decision to suspend EU accession talks until 2028. Tbilisi accused Brussels of using the talks to meddle in Georgian politics using “constant blackmail and manipulation.”

On Friday, Zourabichvili published another video address, in which she called on various Georgian officials, including the military and the security services, to join the anti-government protests. She also said that “resistance” was on the rise in the country.

The president described this week’s protests as “extremely peaceful” and blamed the street violence exclusively on the police. “This is your responsibility and only yours,” she said in her speech on Friday. Zourabichvili also joined the protests on Friday night, according to local media reports.

At least ten law enforcement officers were injured in violent clashes with demonstrators that night, according to the Georgian Interior Ministry. Over 250 people have reportedly been arrested in connection with the protests in Tbilisi over the past two days.

On Saturday, Prime Minister Irakli Kobakhidze blamed the developments on EU meddling and vowed to prevent a scenario similar to Ukraine’s 2014 Maidan coup, which led to the ouster of the legitimately elected president, Viktor Yanukovich.