A former soccer star and conservative critic of the West was sworn in on Sunday as the new president of Georgia, a strategically important republic in the middle of the Caucasus, replacing a head of state who vowed to continue fighting to steer the country closer to Europe.
Mikheil Kavelashvili, 53, was sworn in as president in a hall of Parliament that had many empty seats as representatives from four opposition parties refused to enter it after an election in October that they denounced as rigged.
The parliamentary elections and the inauguration of a conservative president known for his criticisms of Western governments represented a watershed moment for Georgia. Traditionally regarded as a pro-Western trailblazer among states that emerged after the Soviet collapse, Georgia, a country of 3.6 million people, is now widely seen as moving closer to Russia and China.
During his inauguration, Mr. Kavelashvili said that now Georgians “must approach existing challenges with caution, analyze the threats” and “make decisions not based on emotions but as a result of careful thought.”
The standoff between Georgia and its former Western backers deepened on Friday when the United States announced that it was imposing sanctions on Bidzina Ivanishvili, a reclusive oligarch and founder of the Georgian Dream party, who is widely seen as Georgia’s shadow leader.
Mr. Kavelashvili’s inauguration took place amid a political crisis in Georgia triggered by the parliamentary election, which the opposition and some European officials regard as fraudulent. The already tense crisis deepened at the end of November when Georgia’s prime minister announced that the country would suspend until 2028 talks to join the European Union, a popular national goal for Georgians.
The announcement led to tense daily protests in the capital, Tbilisi, and across the country that often descended into overnight clashes between the protesters and the police.
In another ceremony on Sunday, Georgia’s departing president, Salome Zourabichvili, who over the past months emerged as the leader of the country’s pro-Western movement, said in a speech outside the presidential palace that she would leave office voluntarily. She called Mr. Kavelashvili’s inauguration “a parody” and described the governing party as “scared, illegitimate, sold out, sanctioned and angry.”
“I’m taking away the legitimacy, I’m taking away the flag, I’m taking away what is your trust,” Ms. Zourabichvili told a group of her supporters who had gathered in front of the palace, according to Civil.ge, a local news website.
After the speech, Ms. Zourabichvili joined supporters who then moved to the Parliament building, briefly blocking the city’s main thoroughfare. Six protesters were detained by police officers as they tried to clear the avenue, according to IPN, a local news agency that cited the police as its source for the report.
Georgia’s president occupies a ceremonial post that carries representative duties and functions. But in a country where traditional ceremonies are an integral part of daily life, presidents often assume an outsize symbolic role. While Ms. Zourabichvili was endorsed by the Georgian Dream party in 2018, she gradually began to oppose it. Over the past year she became the most vocal leader of the opposition.
In 2018, the Georgian government changed the way presidents are elected, from a popular vote to an electoral college consisting of members of Parliament and lawmakers from municipal and other assemblies. Mr. Kavelashvili was the first president to be elected under the new procedure.
He was a professional soccer striker for a number of Georgian, Russian and European clubs, including Manchester City in the English Premier League, before beginning his political career in 2016. That year he was elected to the Georgian Parliament as a member of the governing party, Georgian Dream. In 2022, he left the party to found a more anti-Western and People’s Power movement that often criticized the United States as a nefarious power that wants to drag Georgia into Russia’s war with the West.
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