Salome Zourabichvili: Georgia's first female president

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00:00Born in Paris in 1952 to a Georgian family who fled the Soviet regime,

00:05Salome Zurabishvili went on to have a career in the French diplomatic service.

00:10In 2003, she became France's ambassador to Georgia.

00:14The then-president, Mikheil Saakashvili, granted her Georgian nationality

00:18before making her his Minister of Foreign Affairs in 2004.

00:24Zurabishvili's nomination was a step further towards closer ties

00:28with the European Union and NATO, but she was dismissed one year later.

00:33Running as an independent candidate, she was elected as a Member of Parliament in 2016.

00:38Two years later, with the support of the ruling Georgia Dream Party,

00:42she became the country's first female president.

00:46The new constitution of Georgia reflects the will of the Georgian people

00:50associated with the unhindered movement of Georgia

00:52towards the European Union and NATO.

00:57Despite these promises for further European integration,

01:00the ruling party became increasingly pro-Russian and authoritarian.

01:05Georgian Dream adopted laws similar to Moscow,

01:08cracking down on civil society and NGOs.

01:11Zurabishvili systematically vetoed them.

01:14The government began proceedings to remove her from office

01:17and postpone Georgia's EU accession talks until 2028.

01:22This, combined with recent elections,

01:24which were not considered free and fair by the EU,

01:27has led to regular anti-government protests, which the president supports.

01:33In a France 24 interview last month,

01:35she asserted that the election was marred by fraud.

01:39We are confronting today the stolen elections, the illegitimate parliament,

01:46and an illegitimate parliament cannot elect anything but an illegitimate government

01:52and an illegitimate president.

01:55On the 14th of December, former footballer Mikhail Kavelishvili,

02:00backed by the ruling party, was elected president.

02:03His win was a result of a change in the constitution

02:06in which presidents are no longer directly elected by the people

02:10but by a restricted electoral college currently controlled by Georgian Dream.

02:15Salome Zurabishvili does not recognise her successor

02:18and intends to remain in power.

02:21Alongside the opposition, she is calling for new elections.

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