Salome Zourabichvili was sworn in December 2018 as the last Georgian President to be elected by a popular vote, replaced by the electoral college. It’s been six years and her term is coming to an end. She went through quite a journey not only in life, but in politics. A daughter of Georgian émigrés in France who became career diplomat and returned to ancestral homeland as a French Ambassador, to then become Georgian Minister of Foreign Affairs under President Mikheil Saakashvili.
After falling out with Saakashvili in 2005, Zourabichvili started her own political party, yet had no notable success. In 2016, she was elected as an MP for Mtatsminda district. While running as an independent, she was endorsed by the ruling ‘Georgian Dream’ [GD] party. The same scenario took place in 2018, when she ran for President, but since she fell off with GD as well.
Those who initially wouldn’t recognize her as a President now think she is the sole legitimate representative of Georgia, while those who stood by her in the beginning now claim she advances ‘foreign interests’.
Paper Kartuli has gathered the most important events and decisions of the Zourabichvili presidency.
Zourabichvili announced her candidacy on August 6th, 2018. A few days later, she was endorsed by the ‘Georgian Dream’.
On the campaign trail, Zourabichvili has said it was Georgia that began the military action during its 2008 war with Russia. This was and still is a statement not at all tolerated by the pro-Western political forces. Responding to the allegations of treachery because of those comments, Zourabichvili said she wouldn’t deny them, since ‘one can’t prove she is not a pink elephant’. She was also criticised for what critics considered bad command of Georgian — in the past, and even now, she tends to make some grammatical mistakes in speeches.
Still, the tough campaign time made her a friend — a stray dog picked up in Gombori, a village in Kakheti region. She revealed this adoption in 2019 in a Facebook post, saying ‘it is a Presidential dog now’. Named after the location she was found at, the dog was lost in November 2023. Zourabichvili posted on Facebook again, asking for help to find her. Eventually, the dog was found.
She won the presidency in the second round of voting, on November 28th 2018. Critics argued her victory owed to vote buying and distributing ‘potatoes and onions’ in exchange for votes. Zourabichvili, unlike other Georgian Presidents, was inaugurated in Telavi, not Tbilisi and was accompanied by the protests.
As in 2024, the opposition claimed parliamentary elections had been rigged and declined to recognise the newly elected parliament’s legitimacy. The political crisis that began in November 2020 ended in May 2021. Zourabichvili, along with European Council President Charles Michel, mediated an agreement, with the opposition recognising the parliament but having a shot at snap elections in case GD performed bad in the municipal elections scheduled for fall 2021.
On October 1st, 2021, former President Mikheil Saakashvili returned to Georgia and was arrested on the same day. His supporters held many rallies near the Presidential residence, demanding Zourabichvili pardon him. She refused to do so back then and still says she does not intend to do that.
Elected with the financial and political support of the ‘Georgian Dream’, Zourabichvili was considered their ally. Tensions began arising in 2021, with the President criticizing police inaction during the disruption of the pride march and beating of journalists by an ultra-conservative mob. It only escalated in 2022, after the full-scale invasion of Ukraine by Russia. Zourabichvili became more critical of the government, dismissing their claims about the attempts to drag Georgia into a war with Russia and saying ‘it was absurd’ for PM Irakli Garibashvili to claim that ‘it was unjust of the EU not to grant Georgia membership candidate status.
In March 2022, the ruling party announced it would sue Zourabichvili because of her refusal to confirm the appointment of ambassadors, whose qualifications and experience she deemed not fit for the office. During the fall of 2023, GD unsuccessfully tried to impeach her because of the trips she made to Europe without the government’s approval.
Nevertheless, the government disapproval, Zourabichvili still went on with her trips, but had to pay for them herself. Per her declaration, she spent 48 thousand GEL in 2023.
On December 18th, 2024, Zourabichvili addressed the European Parliament, urging European leaders to support Georgia and put pressure on ‘Georgian Dream’.
Zourabichvili has been supportive of the protests against the ‘foreign agents’ law’ of 2023 and 2024, as well as of those that have begun against the decision of the Georgian authorities to halt EU membership talks until 2028. She has even been seen at the demonstrations a few times, and once tried to talk with special forces, asking whom do they pledge allegiance — Georgia or Russia.
On December 22nd, Zourabichvili addressed the protesters and demanded that the authorities agree on a snap election date until December 29th — the inauguration day of GD-elected President, whose legitimacy she doesn’t recognize. Zourabichvili insists she doesn’t intend to leave her office, with PM Irakli Kobakhidze warning she could face charges and jail time if that really is the case.
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