Mikheil Kavelashvili is a former professional Georgian footballer and politician. He is known for his pro-Russian stance, a hardline critic of Europe. Recently, he was allegedly declared the sixth president of Georgia after the 2024 controversial presidential vote. The election was boycotted and denied by the opposition groups and some of the international community, including the European Union and the USA.
He was the only candidate in the election. For the first time, the president was selected not by a national election process but in the Georgian parliament by a direct poll of a 300-member electoral college formed of MPs and representatives of local government. However, the four major opposition parties have boycotted parliament since October’s argued election; Kavelashvili was a shoo-in to succeed.
The former soccer player Kavelashvili holds strong anti-Western sentiments. In public speeches this year, he has frequently said that Western intelligence agencies are aiming to drive Georgia into battle with Russia. Just 10 years after he quit the football game, he was selected to Georgia’s parliament in 2016 on the pro-Russian Georgian Dream ticket. In 2022, he co-established the People’s Power political campaign, which was associated with the Georgian Dream and became public for its powerful anti-Western rhetoric.
Mikheil Kavelashvili was one of the writers of a controversial law demanding organizations that accept more than 20% of their grant from abroad to document as “pursuing the interest of a foreign power,” equivalent to a Russian law employed to disprove organizations critical of the government. Opposition groups said the new law could abuse Georgia’s try to join the European Union, which has provided it candidate status. The European Union has cautioned that the law could endanger further progress within the bloc.
Addressing parliament after his nomination in November, Kavelashvili stated, “Our society is divided,” asserting that “radicalisation and polarisation” in the land are being pushed from abroad. He blamed pro-Western outgoing president Zourabichvili, who has stated she will refuse to leave her position until a new election is carried out, for breaking the constitution and announced that he would “restore the presidency to its constitutional framework.”
