{"id":272310,"date":"2024-12-29T09:05:11","date_gmt":"2024-12-29T09:05:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2024\/12\/29\/thousands-protest-in-georgia-as-new-president-sworn-in\/"},"modified":"2024-12-29T09:05:11","modified_gmt":"2024-12-29T09:05:11","slug":"thousands-protest-in-georgia-as-new-president-sworn-in","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2024\/12\/29\/thousands-protest-in-georgia-as-new-president-sworn-in\/","title":{"rendered":"Thousands protest in Georgia as new president sworn in"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n \n \n
Thousands of Georgians are protesting in the capital Tbilisi as a new president allied with the ruling Georgian Dream party was inaugurated.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Mikheil Kavelashvili, a former pro-footballer, has been sworn in during a critical political period for the country after the government suspended its application to join the European Union.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Georgian Dream won parliamentary elections in October, but the victory was mired in allegations of fraud which have since sparked several street protests.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Outgoing president Salome Zourabichvili refused to step down on Sunday, saying she was the “only legitimate president”.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Addressing crowds gathered outside, Zourabichvili said she would leave the presidential palace but branded her successor illegitimate.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“This building was a symbol only as long as a legitimate president was sitting here,” she said.<\/p>\n\n\n\nZourabichvili vowed to fight on in an address to protesters outside the palace on Sunday morning<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\nProtesters hung onto Zourabichvili’s words<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
Georgia’s four main opposition groups have rejected Kavelashvili and boycotted parliament.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Kavelashvili is a former MP with the Georgian Dream party and was the only candidate for the job. Zourabichvili has previously denounced his election as a travesty.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Georgian Dream has become increasingly authoritarian in recent years, passing Russian-style laws targeting media and non-government groups who receive foreign funding, and the LGBT community.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It refused to join Western sanctions on Russia after the full-scale invasion of Ukraine and called the West the “global war party”, making a mockery of its stated aim of joining the EU and NATO.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
An overwhelming majority of Georgians back the country’s path to the EU and it is part of the constitution.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But in November, the country’s ruling party said the government would not seek EU accession talks until 2028.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The announcement sparked days of protests, and riot police used tear gas and water cannons against protesters, who fought back by throwing fireworks and stones.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
On Saturday, protesters waving Georgian and EU flags gathered again ahead of the inauguration, forming a human chain that spanned kilometres.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“I am out in the street together with my whole family trying somehow to tear this small country out of the claws of the Russian empire,” one protester told the Associated Press.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The US this week\u00a0imposed sanctions\u00a0on Georgia’s former prime minister and billionaire founder of Georgian Dream, Bidzina Ivanishvili.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Georgia is a parliamentary democracy with the president the head of state, and the prime minister the head of parliament.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
When Zourabichvili became president in 2018 she was endorsed by Georgian Dream, but she has since condemned their contested election victory in late October as a “Russian special operation” and backed nightly pro-EU protests outside parliament.<\/p>\n\n
DISCLAIMER: <\/strong>The Views, Comments, Opinions, Contributions and Statements made by Readers and Contributors on this platform do not necessarily represent the views or policy of Multimedia Group Limited.<\/p> \n \n \n \n\n \n\n \n \n \n <\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Thousands of Georgians are protesting in the capital Tbilisi as a new president allied with the ruling Georgian Dream party was inaugurated. Mikheil Kavelashvili, a former pro-footballer, has been sworn in during a critical political period for the country after the government suspended its application to join the European Union. Georgian Dream won parliamentary elections […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":272311,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-272310","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-top-news"],"yoast_head":"\n
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