Georgian ex-footballer turned far-right politician Mikheil Kavelashvili is ready to develop into Tbilisi’s subsequent figurehead president in an oblique election denounced as “illegitimate” by the present pro-EU chief.
Picked by the governing Georgian Dream occasion as a loyalist, the previous ahead for the English Premier League’s Manchester Metropolis is understood for his expletive-laden parliament speeches and tirades in opposition to authorities critics and LGBTQ folks.
He’s anticipated to be voted into the function by an electoral school managed by Georgian Dream, after the occasion abolished using widespread votes to elect the president beneath controversial constitutional adjustments handed in 2017.
Kavelashvili being catapulted to the function comes at a dramatic second as hundreds of anti-government protesters have flooded Tbilisi for weeks, livid at Georgian Dream for shelving EU accession talks.
Protesters have described Kavelashvili as a “puppet” of billionaire Bidzina Ivanishvili, Georgian Dream’s founder, who in flip has known as him “the embodiment of a Georgian man”.
Sporting a moustache and combed again hair, his feedback on LGBTQ folks have raised alarm, as Georgian Dream has adopted Kremlin-style legal guidelines curbing their rights.
The ex-footballer slammed the West for wanting “as many individuals as attainable (to be) impartial and tolerant towards the LGBTQ ideology, which supposedly defends the weak however is, the truth is, an act in opposition to humanity.”
– Soccer roots –
Born in Georgia’s tiny southwestern city of Bolnisi in 1971, Kavelashvili started his profession as an expert footballer within the Nineteen Eighties, enjoying for golf equipment in Georgia and Russia and turning into a striker for his nation’s nationwide crew.
The 53-year-old performed for Manchester Metropolis between 1995-1997, scoring on debut in opposition to bitter crosstown rivals Manchester United.
He then joined Swiss membership Grasshoppers, the place he spent most of his time on the bench, earlier than stints elsewhere in Switzerland at Zurich, Luzern, Sion, Aarau and Basel.
Kavelashvili was disqualified from working for president of the Georgian Soccer Federation in 2015 attributable to a scarcity of upper schooling, a requirement for the function.
He has served as an MP for Georgian Dream since 2016 and was elected to the legislature on the occasion’s listing in October 2024 polls — which opposition teams say have been rigged and don’t recognise.
In 2022, Kavelashvili, alongside different Georgian Dream lawmakers, established a parliamentary faction known as Individuals’s Energy — an anti-Western group that formally cut up from the governing occasion however was extensively seen as its satellite tv for pc.
His political affiliations align with far-right ideologies.
– ‘Oligarch’s puppet’ –
He’s identified for obscenity-laced statements in opposition to opponents and has accused Western leaders of attempting to tug Georgia into Russia’s battle on Ukraine.
Georgian Dream nominated Kavelashvili for the largely ceremonial publish in late November, aiming to strengthen its grip on energy.
However the nomination outraged many in Georgia, particularly those that have been taking to the streets each day for 2 weeks to protest Georgian Dream’s drift from its goal of becoming a member of the EU.
On the 14th day of mass protests this week, demonstrators didn’t maintain again in expressing their disdain for Kavelashvili.
“I can hardly think about anybody much less suited to the function of head of state,” historian Nika Gobronidze, 53, advised AFP.
He mentioned Ivanishvili, the businessman extensively believed to be pulling the strings in Georgian politics, selected Kavelashvili as a software he may management.
“Caligula needed his horse to be a consul, our oligarch desires his puppet Kavelashvili to be a president,” he mentioned, referring to the Roman emperor.
– ‘Illegitimate’ –
The brand new electoral course of makes it a foregone conclusion that Kavelashvili would be the subsequent president, with incumbent Salome Zurabishvili set to lose workplace.
However Kavelashvili will see his legitimacy undermined from the onset, with constitutional regulation consultants — together with an writer of Georgia’s structure, Vakhtang Khmaladze — saying the election will likely be “illegitimate”.
Tbilisi is at present engulfed in a constitutional disaster, with Zurabishvili demanding a re-run of October’s parliamentary elections.
Parliament had authorized its personal credentials in violation of a authorized requirement to await a court docket choice on Zurabishvili’s bid to have the election outcomes annulled.
Zurabishvili has declared the brand new parliament and authorities “illegitimate” and vowed to not step down on the finish of her time period on December 29 if Georgian Dream doesn’t organise a contemporary vote.
AFP