Protesters take to the streets after Georgia’s new president takes office

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Mikhail Kavelashvili, an ally of Georgia’s authoritarian ruling party, has been sworn in as president of the Caucasus country, sparking more protests in the capital, Tbilisi.

Kavelashvili’s inauguration marks the final step in a state-capture campaign by pro-Russian oligarch Bidzina Ivanishvili, whose party has derailed all the country’s institutions since coming to power in 2012. under its control.

Protesters took to the streets carrying red cards, a symbol of their opposition to the former footballer, striker for Manchester City and several Swiss clubs, who became an ultranationalist firebrand.

Demonstrators, who have held daily rallies over the past month, welcomed the U.S. State Department’s move to impose sanctions on Ivanishvili as the country’s political crisis escalates. He was alarmed by the measures announced on Friday, which “undermine Georgian democracy and the Euro-Atlantic future in the interest of the Russian Federation”.

The country’s outgoing president and de facto opposition leader Salome Zourabichvili said as she left the presidential palace Orbeliani Palace on Sunday that she remained in the position the legal holder.

In a speech to Georgians gathered in front of the palace, she denounced Kavelashvili’s inauguration as a “parody” and reiterated her loyalty to “the country and the people.” . . I will leave here with you and stay with you.

Several people familiar with the matter told the Financial Times that Zurabichvili had been unsure whether to box himself in or leave the palace. She also said she would not resign until new elections were held, arguing that the academy was dominated by members of the ruling party and did not have the legitimacy to elect Kavelashvili as rector.

She also called for new elections. The European Parliament said the October vote was “neither free nor fair”.

Georgia has endured a year of political turmoil. On December 14 last year, people took to the streets of Tbilisi and other cities to celebrate the country’s EU candidate status, a long-held dream for many in the small Caucasus country of 3.8 million people.

But in May, parliament passed a foreign agents law, dubbed the “Russian law” because of its similarity to Moscow’s approach to suppressing dissent, even as protests raged for months, accelerating the slide toward authoritarianism.

NGOs warned it was a tool to dismantle civil society, echoing Russia’s use of the “foreign agent” label as a precursor to prosecution. Unlike Russia, organizations in Georgia must register themselves, but most NGOs have refused to register in protest.

The next flashpoint came in the October parliamentary elections, when the “Georgian Dream” party received 54% of the vote. According to multiple observers, there were widespread irregularities on Election Day, including ballot stuffing, ID theft and “carousel voting,” in which the same person voted at multiple polling stations. Opposition parties refused to accept the results, boycotted parliament and demanded new elections.

Georgian-backed Prime Minister Irakli Kobakhidze announced in late November that Georgia would suspend accession talks and pledged to revisit the issue in 2028 so that the country could join “with dignity.”

The protests have intensified and been met with an unprecedented police crackdown, with dozens hospitalized and hundreds detained.

“When people turned to Georgian Dream and saw their neighbors and family members beaten, cracks appeared in the system – that was the last straw,” said Tamar Chergo, an opposition politician and former media manager. Tamar Chergoleishvili said.

Erin Hoshtalia, leader of Droa! According to official results, part of the liberal coalition (It’s About Time!), which came in second place in the parliamentary elections, called the opposition “the National Resistance Movement”.

“It’s not about which party you prefer. It’s about whether you and your children can continue to live in this country in a more or less peaceful way,” she said.

To some opposition politicians, the country’s slide into authoritarianism is no surprise.

“I have been saying for over a decade that Ivanishvili’s trajectory is [Ukraine’s former pro-Russian president Viktor] Yanukovych,” said former national security adviser Djiga Bokeria. “I might be surprised by the speed and some of the shape of the turn, but not by the turn itself.”

Corneli Kakachia, director of the Institute of Georgian Politics in Tbilisi, said it was a gamble for the ruling party to increase its oppression of civil society.

“The more they oppress people, the more they get out,” he said. “Georgians will not tolerate this. There are too many people [have] I’m tired of Ivanishvili.