TBILISI — Georgian President Salome Zurabishvili recently shared a snapshot of the New Year’s decorations at the presidential palace in Tbilisi. “They put a train in front of the Orbeliani Palace,” she said on Facebook. “Let’s see who will be leaving.” On December 14, an electoral college dominated by the ruling Georgian Dream party is set to pick Mikheil Kavelashvili, a 53-year-old former football player and right-wing populist, as Georgia’s next president. The inauguration is slated for December 29. But, with Georgia rocked by persistent anti-government rallies, the 72-year-old Zurabishvili, whose tenure ends this year, has stated that she will not go. “There will be no inauguration, and my mandate will continue,” the incumbent declared on November 30.

The Diplomat Versus The Footballer The two lawmakers’ backgrounds and political views could not be more different. Zurabishvili was born in France to a family of Georgian exiles who fled the Red Army invasion in 1921. She spent decades as a French diplomat before becoming Georgia’s foreign minister in 2004. As her political career progressed, she became more appealing to urban and progressive parts of Georgian society, and she remained a strong supporter of the country’s integration into the European Union.

Not for the first time, she has joined protestors who have been taking to the streets across the country for over two weeks to condemn the government’s decision to postpone Georgia’s EU entrance. The authorities responded with a violent crackdown on protesters, opposition activists, and media. Zurabishvili was initially sponsored by Georgian Dream for her successful presidential campaign in 2018, but she has since been a thorn in the side of the ruling party. Zurabishvili, although being ostensibly a neutral president with just ceremonial powers, has condemned Georgian Dream’s increasingly dictatorial approach. Whereas Zurabishvili has regularly portrayed herself as a democratic champion, Kavelashvili has portrayed himself as a people’s champion. Kavelashvili, a well-known footballer, presents himself as a Georgian everyman.

After entering parliament in 2016, Kavelashvili founded the People’s Power Party, a more extreme, anti-Western offshoot of Georgian Dream. Appealing to the country’s conservative rural heartlands, he frequently contrasts “traditional Georgian values” with what he perceives as Western liberalism’s degeneracy, and he has taken a hard position on immigration and sovereignty. Kavelashvili has the support of Georgian Dream and its ultra-powerful founder, millionaire Bidzina Ivanishvili. “He is the perfect example of a Georgian man. “A wonderful husband and father of four children,” Ivanishvili stated when introducing the presidential candidate on November 27.

Disputed Elections The conflict is centred on the country’s recent legislative elections. Georgian Dream won a landslide victory with 54 percent of the vote on October 26, while the four opposition forces combined for 38 percent. International observers and the opposition slammed the results, claiming massive irregularities and ballot fraud. Zurabishvili claims the elections were “stolen” with Russia’s assistance and considers the parliament, and hence the electoral college, to be illegal institutions.

“Probably 20-25 RoboCops were chasing us,” Zandukeli claims. “When I turned around, the first thing I thought of was to begin filming them, but this irritated one of them so much that he ran over to me and told me to switch off my cell phone. When I didn’t, he grabbed it out of my grasp, flung it on the ground, and pushed me against the wall.” According to Zandukeli, the riot police began shouting and swearing at them, calling them “c***s,” and beating them. She recalls witnessing her buddy Natia fall to the floor, attempting to shield her head from the blows. “They were hitting us in the head,” she screams, and I yell, “What’s wrong with you?”…. When I said to him, ‘Why are you hitting me? I’m not your child,’ he said, ‘You are not my child, and that’s why I’m hitting you.'”

The two women managed to escape, hiding in a tavern on Rustaveli Avenue. However, Zandukeli claims that within minutes, the entire street was filled with riot cops. They switched off the lights in the bar and locked the doors. “If they had charged in, I don’t know what would have happened to us,” she informs me.

Gia Jvarsheishvili: ‘Don’t Let This Son Of A Bitch Die! At 4 a.m. on December 2, police had just thrown tear gas at the throng. As the demonstrators dispersed into the streets surrounding the parliament, Gia Jvarsheishvili, a disability activist, claims he observed one of his female friends standing alone on a street corner, clutching a flag. Jvarsheishvili had attended political rallies before and assumed he would be safe. “Sometimes I stand between the demonstrators and the police — right in front of them — and I have never been hit or arrested,” he jokes. “I never do anything violent.”

This time, he wasn’t as lucky. According to Jvarsheishvili, the security officers started sprinting toward him, accusing him of tossing a Molotov cocktail. That is when they began assaulting him and telling him he was unworthy of the Georgian flag his companion was holding, he said. The cops forced him to the ground. He recalls his friend pleading with officers to stop assaulting them. He claims that before being taken to a police van, he was forced to pass through a “corridor” of riot troops, all of whom shouted obscenities at him. “They called out for everyone to hear: ‘This one tossed a Molotov cocktail. After hearing it, I was struck by another enraged police officer.” This time, he claims, the onslaught was merciless.