Ex-Man City striker Kavelashvili elected as Georgia’s new far-right president

TBILISI – Georgian lawmakers elected former footballer Mikheil Kavelashvili, a hardline critic of the West, as the country’s new president on Dec 14, setting him up to replace a pro-Western incumbent amid major protests against the government over a halt to the country’s European Union accession talks in November.

The ruling Georgian Dream party’s move to freeze the EU accession process until 2028, abruptly halting a longstanding national goal that is written into the country’s Constitution, has provoked widespread anger in Georgia, where opinion polls show that seeking EU membership is overwhelmingly popular.

Picked by Georgian Dream as a loyalist, the former forward for English Premier League champions Manchester City is known for his expletive-laden Parliament speeches and tirades against government critics and LGBTQ people.

Georgian presidents are picked by a college of electors composed of MPs and representatives of local governments. Of 225 electors present, 224 voted for Mr Kavelashvili, who was the only candidate nominated.

All opposition parties have boycotted Parliament since October elections in which official results gave the ruling Georgian Dream almost 54 per cent of the vote, but which the opposition says was fraudulent.

Thousands of anti-government protesters have flooded Tbilisi

for weeks, furious at Georgian Dream for shelving EU accession talks.

Protesters have described Mr Kavelashvili as a “puppet” of billionaire Bidzina Ivanishvili, Georgian Dream’s founder, who in turn has called him “the embodiment of a Georgian man”.

Mr Kavelashvili’s comments on LGBTQ people have raised alarm, as has Georgian Dream’s adoption of Kremlin-style laws curbing their rights.

The ex-footballer slammed the West for wanting “as many people as possible (to be) neutral and tolerant towards the LGBTQ ideology, which supposedly defends the weak but is, in fact, an act against humanity”.

Football roots

Born in Georgia’s tiny south-western town of Bolnisi in 1971, Mr Kavelashvili began his career as a professional footballer in the 1980s, playing for clubs in Georgia and Russia and becoming a striker for his country’s national team.

The 53-year-old played for Manchester City from 1995 to 1997, scoring on his debut against bitter crosstown rivals Manchester United.

He then joined Swiss club Grasshoppers, where he spent most of his time on the bench, before stints elsewhere in Switzerland at Zurich, Luzern, Sion, Aarau and Basel.

Mr Kavelashvili was disqualified from running for president of the Georgian Football Federation in 2015 due to a lack of higher education – a requirement for the role.

He has served as an MP for Georgian Dream since 2016 and was elected to the legislature on the party’s list in October 2024 polls that opposition groups have refused to recognise.

In 2022, Mr Kavelashvili, alongside other Georgian Dream lawmakers, formed a parliamentary faction called People’s Power – an anti-Western group that officially split from the governing party but was widely seen as its satellite.

His political affiliations align with far-right ideologies.

‘Oligarch’s puppet’

Mr Kavelashvili is known for obscenity-laced statements against opponents and has accused Western leaders of trying to drag Georgia into Russia’s war on Ukraine.

Georgian Dream nominated Mr Kavelashvili for the largely ceremonial post in late November, aiming to strengthen its grip on power.

But the nomination outraged many in Georgia, especially those who have been taking to the streets daily for two weeks to protest against Georgian Dream drifting from the aim of joining the EU.

On the 14th day of mass protests this week, demonstrators did not hold back in expressing their disdain for Mr Kavelashvili.

“I can hardly imagine anyone less suited for the role of head of state,” historian Nika Gobronidze, 53, told AFP.

He said Mr Ivanishvili, the businessman widely believed to be pulling the strings in Georgian politics, chose Mr Kavelashvili as a tool he could control.

“Caligula wanted his horse to be a consul, our oligarch wants his puppet Kavelashvili to be a president,” Mr Gobronidze said, referring to the notorious Roman emperor.

Legitimacy undermined

Mr Kavelashvili will see his legitimacy undermined from the outset, with constitutional law experts – including an author of Georgia’s Constitution, Dr Vakhtang Khmaladze – saying the election will be “illegitimate”.

Tbilisi is currently engulfed in a constitutional crisis, with incumbent President Salome Zourabichvili demanding a rerun of October’s national elections.

Parliament had approved its own credentials in violation of a legal requirement to await a court decision on Ms Zourabichvili’s bid to have the election results annulled.

Ms Zourabichvili has declared the new Parliament and government “illegitimate” and vowed not to step down at the end of her term on Dec 29 if Georgian Dream does not organise a fresh vote.

Opposition parties have said they will continue to regard Ms Zourabichvili as the legitimate president, even after Mr Kavelashvili is inaugurated on Dec 29.
AFP, REUTERS