Georgia has a new president, in the person of pro-Russian MP Mikhail Kavelashvili, a 53-year-old former professional footballer. The indirect vote is not recognized by the pro-European fringes of the country, due to the massive fraud which marked the parliamentary elections of October 26. However, the deputies represent half of the college of electors who chose Mikhail Kavelashvili to succeed the pro-Western Salomé Zourabichvili. As a result, the latter says she does not want to leave her position.
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With our correspondent in Tbilisi, Régis Genté
Georgia is entering a form of legal limbo. The ruling Georgian Dream party oligarch Bidzina Ivanishviliproclaims his victory on October 26 and says he wants to implement his promises, starting by banning pro-Western political parties and NGOs.
As for the tens of thousands of Georgians who have marched in the streets of the country for 17 days, after the announcement of the freezing of the European integration process, they deny any legitimacy to the power in place. Because of the fraud during the parliamentarians of October 26, but also for having lied to the country to finally bring it back into the Russian orbit.
The two camps are irreconcilable. Less at the level of society, the vast majority of which dreams of Europe, but is also worked by the fear of war with Russia, but rather between the pro-Western political and cultural elites and the oligarch Bidzina Ivanishvili, whose everything indicates that it is held by Moscow.
To impose his 180 degree turn towards Russia, he did not hesitate to resort to violence. Violence which deters many Georgians from pursuing their European dream.
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