Georgia inaugurates far-right ruling party loyalist as new president - video Dailymotion

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00:00For more on this story, we can bring in Maryam Tosadze, a security and program advisor of

00:05Georgian Centre for Strategy and Development. Thank you very much for speaking to us on France24.

00:12Hello, thank you so much for having me.

00:14Zurabishvili then maintains that she's the only legitimate president. So what happens next?

00:23Yes, Salome Zurabishvili does maintain that she remains the only legitimate authority in

00:29the country, which means that she's the only authority that has been elected through a

00:33legitimate process of elections. The installing of the new president happened under the

00:42circumstances of near absence, I would say, of legitimacy of the parliament, which was then

00:48tasked with installing the new president. I mean, the new president was, and I'm using the word

00:54installed strategically, because this was not an election. He ran as a sole candidate and was

01:00essentially installed by his friends within the one party parliament. So the parliament itself

01:06lacks legitimacy, lacks recognition from both the internal audience as well as the international

01:11audience, which then sort of by extension means that the candidate imposed by or installed by

01:17that parliament lacks legitimacy. So what happens next is a logical question. And this is something

01:23that the outgoing president Salome Zurabishvili tried to cover in her remarks earlier today in

01:29front of the presidential palace. She indicated that once again, that this will be a long process

01:35of resistance and that she will now move to sort of the side of the people and she will continue to

01:43fight along with the people. It's again, it's a long process and it will require a lot of leadership

01:49from her, from other political leaders as well. But one thing I think that everyone is preparing

01:54for is a long process of resistance. You mentioned it just there about how Kevin

02:01Ashfordly was installed. That's because the Georgian Dream Party abolished the use of

02:06popular votes to elect the president in 2017 changes to the constitution. Can you tell us

02:13a little bit more about that? Of course. I mean, the reduction of the presidential power has been

02:19a sort of a gradual thing in Georgia, which has its explanations and it has its reasons. There's

02:26historical sort of experience that we've had with the presidency in this country. So that's one

02:30thing. And then this year was the first time ever that the president of Georgia was to be elected by

02:37a specially designated body that was essentially formed by, is supposed to be formed

02:44by the members of the parliament as well as other institutions. But the parliament in itself is

02:49supposed to be a representative body, which is unlike what we have today, which is a single party

02:56institution. The candidate that was nominated and now installed was, I mean, honestly, as a

03:04citizen of this country, it breaks my heart that I have to say this now, but this man was selected

03:10for one quality and one quality only, which is essentially loyalty to the regime, loyalty to the

03:18to Bedina Ivernashvili. We understand that constitutionally speaking, the president does

03:23not hold that much of a power, but at the same time, within the limited powers that the president

03:28could exercise for the benefit of the democratic process in Georgia, with this man in this position,

03:37we have essentially no expectation that he will ever even dream of ever going against the

03:45general sort of party will and the party will directed by the Bedina Ivernashvili.

03:52Right. And we can see that on the screen. I mean, protesters have taken to the presidential palace

03:57this Sunday and protests in general have shown no sign of letting up in all of this. We've

04:04already heard of accounts of beatings on opposition politicians and journalists.

04:08So can we expect a wider crackdown if these demonstrations continue?

04:14That's a great question. I mean, in some ways, I think, well, first and foremost, yes, the protest

04:19is very active and nobody intends to go home anytime soon. I mean, these people protesting

04:26they have been out there for a month now. It's been the weather conditions have been horrible

04:31and nothing seems to scare the people, not even the water cannons, not even the bullet,

04:37the rubber bullets, no gas, nothing, no pepper spray seems to be scaring them.

04:42It's a commitment that these people have made to the democratic process in this country,

04:47which then means that not many things can scare you when that's what you are defending, essentially.

04:54We did see a number of violent acts. I mean, the way the protests, the peaceful protests,

05:00were dispersed in and of itself, that was extremely, extremely problematic.

05:05And then you had, as you mentioned, a crackdown on not just on the opposition leaders and the

05:10politicians and, of course, the media, which is a terrible, terrible problem in itself.

05:14But we also have the unfair arrests of the participants of the protest who, in many cases,

05:21had absolutely nothing to do, or very little to do, with even what you could remotely call

05:26violence during the protest. So what can we expect? I mean, a number of us, I think, expect a

05:34little more authoritarianism, especially in the face of the newly imposed sanctions on Bedina

05:42Ivano-Shvili. It seems to be the logic of how authoritarianism sort of consolidates in the face

05:50of sanctions. We do expect some of that. But at the same time, I mean, the protest itself is,

05:56it's very difficult to discredit. It's very difficult to find things sort of against it,

06:01because it is in and of itself peaceful and it has very clear demands. The demands being

06:08new election and the unconditional sort of freeing of the people that are unjustly and unfairly

06:15imprisoned. Right. So the United States said that it would sanction the billionaire founder

06:20of the Georgian Dream Party, as you mentioned, Bedina Ivano-Shvili. But he's not even an elected

06:25official. So why is he described as the de facto leader of Georgia? He is the founder of the

06:33Georgian Dream, and he is essentially the drive behind the Georgian Dream. He is the honorary

06:40chair of the party. And essentially, every decision that the party makes directly derives

06:46from him. So he is at the heart of every process and every decision that comes out of the Georgian

06:52Dream. And will these sanctions have a significant concrete effect? Or is it just about the message

06:59that this move is sending? Thank you for that question. That's a loaded question. And I think

07:06there's a lot to be considered here. First and foremost, I think there's mixed feelings regarding

07:12the sanctions, because sanctions in themselves tend to have mixed effects, right? First and

07:17foremost, there's, I mean, there's a part of the society that is overwhelmingly sort of excited

07:23about the sanctions, as they seem to hope that it will have a sort of terminating effect on the

07:32regime. There's the other group of people that are perhaps a little more cautious in their

07:36expectations in relation to the sanctions, as again, as I said, sanctions in some cases tend to cause

07:45a little more consolidation of the authoritarian practices. And we do expect that to happen.

07:51You can feel that there is this lingering expectation of the incoming Trump administration

07:57in the United States. As we know, the sanctions were now imposed through the executive order of

08:04the President Biden. So I think on the side of the Georgian Dream supporters, the expectation

08:10is that, you know, it will be the decision will be changed essentially by the Trump administration.

08:19It's again, it's, there's a lot of moving parts here. And I will admit that a lot does depend

08:24on the incoming Trump administration. The Georgian Dream has truly very obviously overrelied

08:33on their message of the supposed sort of understanding that they have with the

08:39incoming Trump administration. I think this has led a lot of their supporters to believe that

08:45things are very certain for them in the future. And I will say that there are times when it has

08:50felt that perhaps there may be some sort of an understanding between the Georgian Dream and the

08:55incoming administration of the US. But then there are times when it's very obvious that the regime

09:01here seems to just be over relying on something that they may not have all that much substance

09:08for. All right, Mariam Tokadze, thank you very much for your analysis. We'll have to

09:13leave it there. Mariam Tokadze from the Georgian Centre for Strategy and Development.

Georgia inaugurates far-right ruling party loyalist as new president

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