The intruder of the news gives each evening a spotlight on a personality who could have passed under the radars of the news.
In Georgia, the president doesn’t have a lot of power. If not a right of veto, that Salome Zurabishvili promised to use against a bill that triggers the anger of pro-Europeans, of which she is a part. The text is inspired by a Russian law and requires that any media or NGO be registered as a “foreign agent”, if 20% of its resources come from outside.
After several days of demonstrations and repression, the party of Prime Minister Irakli Garibachvili finally withdrew the text on Thursday March 9. Not sure, however, that this is enough to silence the discontent against this regime which is accused of being an instrument of the Kremlin.
French from Georgia
But the intruder of the story is therefore this president, Salomé Zurabishvili, which is not in phase with the Prime Minister. All the more intrusive that she was born French in Paris, in 1952 (she is 70 years old today). His grandparents and his father had fled Georgia at the time of the Soviet invasion in 1921. The family, very influential in the Georgian diaspora, made up of intellectuals, economists and politicians, very close to power in exile in Paris and Leuville-sur-Orge, in theEssone. His cousin is called Hélène Carrère d’Encausse, the academician. Salome Zurabishvili is therefore also a cousin of her children: Emmanuel Carrère, the writer, and Marina Carrère d’Encausse, the journalist and doctor.
As French as she is, Salomé Zurabishvili is also high in Georgian culture. She goes to French school but to the Georgian church, where she sings in the choir. At Sciences Po, in Paris, she did her entire course around the Soviet world, with her cousin as a teacher. She graduated in 1972. And after a year in the United States, at Columbia University, she entered the Quai d’Orsay as a diplomat. Her career takes her from Rome to New York, from N’djamena to Chad, to NATO… Today, she speaks six languages: French, English, Italian, German, Russian, and of course Georgian.
Powered by the Rose Revolution
And if she finds herself doing politics in Georgia, it’s quite simply thanks to a loan from France. In 2003, Jacques Chirac sent her as ambassador to Tbilisi, and that coincided with what was called the Rose Revolution, which led to the resignation of Edward Shevardnadze, accused of corruption, and the coming to power of Mikheil Saakashvili, to which she is very close.
“She was the French ambassador to Georgia when there was the Rose Revolution, and the president at the time asked the French president, Jacques Chirac, if he could ‘borrow’ his ambassador,” recalls his daughter, Kethevane Gorjestani . “So my mother became Minister of Foreign Affairs, then she remained in politics, and the end point of all this is that she became president. So she had to give up her French nationality”says the journalist from France 24 on Europe 1. “She no longer has dual nationality, but she is still very French, especially through her children.” His son, Teymouraz Gorjestani, also a diplomat, was adviser to Emmanuel Macron at the Elysée until a few months ago.
As Minister of Foreign Affairs, it will be remembered that it is she who negotiates the departure of Russian military bases from Georgia. She was elected MP in 2016, and finally president in 2018. Today, her goal is to join the European Union: that is why she and the ruling party, Georgian Dream, were elected.
Support from protesters
With the bill contested and withdrawn Thursday, March 9, the Prime Minister is betraying his constituents and seeking to ruin the chances of membership, the president believes: “As you know, Georgia was not given candidate status at the same time as Ukraine and Moldova a few months ago. But the second chance is for this year,” recalled Salomé Zourabichvili on France 24. “ And at that moment, outside of all logic, the government and Parliament proposed a law directly inspired by a Russian law. It is clearly a demonstration that we are going against Europe, that we are moving away from Europe at a time when we are being asked to show that we are getting closer to it”.
The Georgian president therefore supports the demonstrations in the country, which are likely to continue. The Ukrainian neighbour, Volodymyr Zelenski, also gave them his support.