San Francisco Frontiers - Salome Zurabishvili: outgoing Georgian leader defying the government

The 72-year-old has taken a central role in Georgia's crisis, having vowed not to stand down when her mandate ends Sunday, unless the ruling Georgian Dream party holds a re-run of October elections that she says were rigged.

"I remain the only legitimate president," she told supporters Sunday.

"I will leave the presidential palace and stand with you, carrying with me the legitimacy, the flag and your trust."

Zurabishvili was a French diplomat before entering the turbulent politics of her ancestral homeland.

Born in Paris to a Georgian family who fled Bolshevik rule in the 1920s, she has accused the government of steering Tbilisi back towards Moscow and acting on Russian orders.

Elected as Georgia's first woman leader in 2018, she became in recent months the beacon of Tbilisi's EU aspirations -- in a fierce feud with the ruling Georgian Dream party and backing massive anti-government protests.

"We are witnesses and victims of a Russian special operation, a modern form of hybrid war against the Georgian people," she declared after contested parliamentary elections in October.

- 'Our president' -

For tens of thousands of protesters, Zurabishvili represents hope against an increasingly repressive government that has adopted a series of Kremlin-style laws.

She has vowed to stand by pro-EU protesters staging daily mass rallies since November 28, when Georgian Dream made its shock announcement that it will shelve EU accession talks until 2028.

On December 14, an electoral college controlled by the ruling party installed its loyalist, far-right former footballer Mikheil Kavelashvili, as the country's next figurehead leader.

But Zurabishvili, whose mandate was meant to end on Sunday with the new leader's inauguration, has refused to step down until the government organises fresh parliamentary elections.

"There is only one formula to resolve such a crisis, one universally recognised in every democratic country: new elections," she said last week.

While she has now vacated the presidential premises in Tbilisi, she has vowed to fight on against Georgian Dream and many protesters see her as the real president of Georgian.

"She still remains our president," 34-year-old software engineer Giorgi Mamatelashvili told AFP as he came to support Zurabishvili on Sunday.

Refusing to recognise Kavelashvili's legitimacy, opposition parties have said Zurabishvili remains the country's "only legitimate leader".

- Pro-EU -

Moving Tbilisi closer to Europe has been a lifelong goal for Zurabishvili, who was not always at war with Georgian Dream.

She was elected with the support of billionaire Bidzina Ivanishvili, Georgia's most powerful man and the ruling party's founder.

Georgians backed Zurabishvili in the polls despite her outsider status and mistakes when speaking Georgian.

"It is now important to show that this country has chosen Europe," she declared after she was first elected.

"For that purpose, Georgians have elected a European woman as president."

But when the government began deviating from its pro-EU path in 2022, Zurabishvili turned into Georgian Dream's most outspoken critic.

She has vetoed several controversial laws targeting civil society, independent media, and LGBTQ rights -- all of which Brussels warned would undermine Georgia's prospects of joining the EU.

Infuriated Georgian Dream lawmakers have twice failed to impeach her.

- 'Superwoman' -

Fighting Russian influence in Georgia is in Zurabishvili's blood.

She is a descendant of Niko Nikoladze, a prominent writer who called for Georgia's independence from the Russian Empire.

Zurabishvili had a 30-year career in French diplomacy, with postings at the United Nations, Washington and Chad, before serving as France's ambassador to Tbilisi.

After the bloodless 2003 "Rose Revolution", Georgia's reformist then-president Mikheil Saakashvili -- now in prison -- appointed her as foreign minister, approving the move first with Jacques Chirac, France's president at the time.

But she quickly fell out with Saakashvili's camp, accusing it of democratic backsliding.

Thousands took to the streets to protest against her dismissal in 2005, chanting: "You are our superwoman!"

In her 2006 book "A Woman for Two Countries", she wrote: "Now, I have to engage in a political battle, which has never attracted me, which I never practised, which is being imposed on me."

R.Baker--SFF