Protesters take to the streets after the inauguration of Georgia’s new president

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Mikheil Kavelashvili, an ally of Georgia’s authoritarian ruling party, was sworn in as the Caucasus country’s president, sparking further protests in the capital Tbilisi.

Kavelashvili’s inauguration marks the latest step in what critics have described as state capture by pro-Russian oligarch Bidzina Ivanishvili, whose Georgian Dream party has taken over all the country’s institutions. under his control since he took power in 2012. The only candidate for the role was elected this month by a college of 300 members, mostly GD members or sympathizers.

Protesters took to the streets with red cards – a symbol of their opposition to the former footballer, a striker for Manchester City and many Swiss clubs, which have become ultranationalists.

The protesters, who have held daily demonstrations for the past month as the country’s political crisis intensified, welcomed a move by the US State Department to impose sanctions on Ivanishvili. He was hit by the measures, announced on Friday, to “undermine the democratic and Euro-Atlantic future of Georgia for the benefit of the Russian Federation”.

Leaving the Orbeliani Palace, the presidential seat, on Sunday, Salome Zourabichvilithe outgoing president of the country and the de facto leader of the opposition, said that she remains the right holder of the role.

In a speech to Georgians gathered in front of the palace, he denounced Kavelashvili’s inauguration as a “parody” and affirmed his loyalty to “the country and the people. . . . I will leave here with you and stay with you .

Zourabichvili was not sure whether to barricade himself in the palace or leave, several people familiar with the matter told the Financial Times. He had also said she does not resign until the new elections were held, arguing that the college, dominated by members of the party, did not have the legitimacy to elect Kavelashvili as president.

She also called for new elections. The European parliament said the October vote was “neither free nor fair”.

Georgia had a year of political upheaval. On December 14 last year, people took to the streets of Tbilisi and other cities to celebrate the country achieving EU candidate status, a long-held dream for many in the small Caucasus nation of 3.8 millions.

But the authoritarian devil accelerated in May when parliament adopted a foreign agents law, dubbed the “Russian law” for its parallels with Moscow’s methods of suppressing dissent, despite months of protests.

Non-governmental organizations warned that it was a tool to dismantle civil society, mirroring Russia’s practice of using the “foreign agent” label as a precursor to prosecution. Unlike Russia, organizations in Georgia have to self-register, but most NGOs have refused in protest.

The next flashpoint came in the October parliamentary elections when the Georgian Dream claimed 54 percent of the vote. There were widespread violations on election day, including ballot stuffing, stolen IDs and “carousel voting,” in which the same people voted at multiple polling stations, according to several observers. . The opposition parties rejected the results, boycotted the parliament and demanded new elections.

Irakli Kobakhidze, the GD-backed prime minister, announced in late November that Georgia was suspending EU accession talks, pledging to revisit the issue in 2028 so that the country could join “with dignity” .

The protests increased in intensity and were met with an unprecedented police crackdown, with dozens hospitalized and hundreds detained.

“Cracks in the system appeared as people turned to Georgian Dream, seeing their neighbors and family beaten – this was the last straw,” said Tamar Chergoleishvili, an opposition politician and former media manager .

Elene Khoshtaria, leader of Droa! (It’s time!), part of the liberal coalition that came second in the parliamentary elections according to the official results, called the opposition “a movement of national resistance”.

“It’s not about which party you like. It’s about whether you and your children can continue to live in this country more or less peacefully,” he said.

For some opposition politicians, the country’s descent into authoritarianism was no surprise.

“For more than 10 years I have said that Ivanishvili’s trajectory is towards (Ukraine’s former pro-Russian president Viktor) Yanukovich,” said Giga Bokeria, a former national security adviser. “I could be surprised by the speed and some forms of the shift, but not the shift itself.”

Kornely Kakachia, director of the Georgian Institute of Politics in Tbilisi, said the ruling party has taken a gamble to increase its oppression of civil society.

“The more they oppress people, the more they get out,” he said. “Georgians will not tolerate this. Too many people (are) fed up with Ivanishvili.”