The inauguration ceremony of Mikheil Kavelashvili as the new president took place in the Georgian parliament building — he is not recognized by the fifth president, Salome Zurabishvili, the opposition, and some of the countryʼs international partners. Protests against the current composition of the parliament have been ongoing in Tbilisi for the 32nd day.
This is reported by "Echo of the Caucasus".
Mikheil Kavelashvili was elected president by the Electoral College, which consists of deputies from the ruling Georgian Dream party, district sakrebulos (municipal authorities), and the Supreme Councils of the Autonomous Republic of Adjara and the Autonomous Republic of Abkhazia (in exile). Kavelashvili was the only candidate.
Kavelashvili took the presidential oath and addressed the audience. In total, the inauguration ceremony lasted about half an hour. Diplomats from other countries were not invited, allegedly due to "lack of seats in the meeting hall."
Mikhail Kavelashvili is a six-time Georgian football champion. Since 2016, he has been a member of parliament from the Georgian Dream party, and in 2022 he headed the Peopleʼs Power party, a "breakaway" party from the ruling party. It was the deputies from this party who initiated the consideration of the Georgian law on "foreign agents", which caused major protests throughout the country.
The Georgian constitution stipulates that the powers of the incumbent president end after the inauguration of a new one, but Salome Zurabishvili has no intention of resigning, although she has decided to leave the presidential palace. She is convinced that the parliament is illegitimate and Kavelashviliʼs inauguration is "a mockery of democracy."
Opposition parties will continue to consider Zurabishvili the legitimate president. They are participating in the work on a document that will determine the conditions for holding new parliamentary elections.
Presidential elections in Georgia
Georgiaʼs presidential election was held on December 14. The electoral college, with an absolute majority of the pro-government Georgian Dream party, elected Mikheil Kavelashvili as head of state. Against this backdrop, the single-party parliament passed a number of bills, one of which would strip Zurabishvili of state protection after her presidential term ends.
In October, Georgiaʼs Constitutional Court ruled that Zurabishvili had violated the law by traveling to Europe without government approval. The government had denied the president access to meetings abroad, so she traveled to European partners at her own expense.
What preceded
Parliamentary elections were held in Georgia in October. According to the Central Election Commission, the pro-government, pro-Russian party Georgian Dream — Democratic Georgia won, gaining 53.9% of the vote. Under Georgian law, this party has the right to form a government alone. The European Parliament did not recognize the election results.
Four more pro-Western opposition parties broke the 5% barrier. The opposition and the president disagreed with the results, and protests began.
On November 28, 2024, Georgian Prime Minister Irakli Kobakhidze announced that Georgia would abandon EU accession negotiations until 2028. He explained that 2028 would supposedly be the time when Georgia would be economically ready to begin accession negotiations. After that, large-scale protests began in the country, which were dispersed by security forces using water cannons and tear gas.
Amid the violent dispersal of the protests, the US suspended the US-Georgian strategic partnership, and Georgian representatives in several EU countries and the US announced that they were resigning. Ukraine also imposed sanctions on the Georgian authorities for the dispersal of the protests. The United Kingdom will also suspend support for the Georgian authorities and limit cooperation with them.
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