Refusal to leave palace for successor backed by autocratic Georgian Dream party on day of departure stirs protesters
In Georgia’s turbulent political standoff, President Salome Zourabichvili has emerged as a defiant figure.
Zourabichvili’s role in Georgia is ceremonial, but far from fading into irrelevance in the twilight of her presidency, she has become a rallying figure for those opposed to the erosion of democracy and the abandonment of Georgia’s European aspirations. On Sunday, she is supposed to step down and hand the Orbeliani Palace to her successor, Mikheil Kavelashvili, a former football player backed by the ruling party, Georgian Dream, but she has said she will refuse.
