53-year-old former Manchester Metropolis soccer participant Mikheil Kavelashvili has change into Georgia’s new president.
Mikheil Kavelashvili has been chosen as president of Georgia on Saturday by a 300-seat electoral school, which changed direct presidential elections in 2017 and is presently dominated by his celebration, Georgian Dream.
It was an easy win for Kavelashvili, 53, who was the one candidate on the poll. Although constitutional adjustments in Georgia have made the president’s job largely ceremonial, it signifies a tightening of Georgian Dream’s grip in what the opposition has known as a blow to the nation’s EU aspirations and a victory for Russia.
It has been an unlikely path to the presidency for Kavelashvili, who emerged from Dinamo Tblisi’s youth system as a promising younger footballer in 1989. He went on to construct a profitable profession as a striker, changing into a daily for his native workforce earlier than transferring to Russian aspect Spartak Vladikavkaz in 1995.
He then joined English aspect Manchester Metropolis for 2 seasons earlier than taking part in for a number of completely different Swiss Tremendous League groups and retiring in 2006. Throughout his taking part in profession, he amassed 46 appearances for the Georgian nationwide workforce and scored 9 targets.
Simply 10 years after his retirement from the soccer world, he was elected to Georgia’s parliament in 2016 on the Georgian Dream ticket. In 2022, he co-founded the Individuals’s Energy political motion, which was allied with Georgian Dream and have become identified for its sturdy anti-western rhetoric.
Kavelashvili has usually been mocked by the opposition in Georgia for missing larger schooling. On the day of his election as president, protesters exterior the parliament constructing introduced their very own college diplomas, whereas others kicked round footballs.
Kavelashvili was one of many authors of a controversial regulation requiring organisations that obtain greater than 20% of their funding from overseas to register as “pursuing the curiosity of a overseas energy,” much like a Russian regulation used to discredit organizations essential of the federal government.
Talking in parliament after his nomination in November, Kavelashvili mentioned “Our society is split,” claiming that “radicalisation and polarisation” within the nation is being fuelled from overseas.
He accused pro-western outgoing president Zourabichvili, who has mentioned she’s going to refuse to vacate her place till a brand new election is held, of violating the structure and declared that he would “restore the presidency to its constitutional framework.”
