Far-right ex-footballer Mikheil Kavelashvili tapped as Georgia’s next president

TBILISI – Georgia’s ruling party on Nov 27 nominated far-right politician, former football international Mikheil Kavelashvili for the largely ceremonial post of president, as it aims to strengthen its grip on power.

Mr Kavelashvili, who played briefly for Manchester City as a striker in the mid-1990s, is a founding member of People’s Power, a splinter group of the ruling Georgian Dream party, and has a record of hardline, anti-Western statements.

In September, he described the opposition as a “fifth column” trying to undermine peace in Georgia at the instruction of “the American administration and specific senators”.

In June, he accused American lawmakers of planning for “a direct violent revolution, a plan for the Ukrainisation of Georgia, and an insatiable desire to destroy our country”.

His election is all but assured, as Georgian Dream dominates the electoral college of members of Parliament and local government representatives.

Although the president’s post is largely ceremonial, the choice of Mr Kavelashvili is likely to be viewed by the European Union and the United States as a further sign that Georgia is

turning away from the West

and moving closer to Russia.

He is set to succeed President Salome Zourabichvili, who was elected as an ally of the governing bloc, but has become a trenchant critic, accusing it of deliberately derailing Georgia’s EU accession hopes.

Ms Zourabichvili has

denounced the October parliamentary election

, won by Georgian Dream, as fraudulent, and opposition lawmakers have refused to take their seats in Parliament.

Unity pledge

In a speech accepting the nomination, Mr Kavelashvili, 53, pledged to unite Georgia, while accusing the outgoing president of having “insulted and ignored” the country’s Constitution.

Though Georgia is traditionally among the most pro-Western countries to have emerged from the former Soviet Union, Georgian Dream has in recent years deepened ties with Russia, whilst also being accused by its opponents of authoritarian tendencies.

The governing party says it wants Georgia to join the EU, but Brussels says Tbilisi’s application is frozen over newly passed laws on “foreign agents” and curbing LGBT rights that Western critics say are draconian and Russian-inspired.

People’s Power, which Mr Kavelashvili co-founded, is seen as among the most openly pro-Russian players in mainstream Georgian politics, and has championed the foreign agent and anti-LGBT laws.

Mr Kavelashvili’s nomination was announced on Nov 27 by Mr Bidzina Ivanishvili, a billionaire former prime minister who founded Georgian Dream and is widely seen as the country’s most powerful figure.

Mr Ivanishvili praised the ex-football player as an “outstanding” politician and athlete, contrasting him with Ms Zourabichvili, who he accused of “gross betrayal” of the country. REUTERS