Meanwhile, her pro-EU predecessor Salome Zurabichvili insists she has no intention of standing aside. Zurabichvili joined thousands of people across the country to form a human chain on Saturday to protest the new president’s inauguration.
Zurabichvili said in a speech on Sunday that he intended to leave the presidential palace, but continued to insist that the new presidency was illegitimate. “This building was only a symbol while the legitimate president was sitting here,” she said.
Georgian Prime Minister Irakli Kobakhidze last week threatened to jail Zurabichvili if he did not resign.
“This election, and by extension the inauguration, are invalid,” Zurabichvili said on Friday’s podcast. “So I’m going to stay president and I’m going to keep doing my job. That’s what everyone needs to know.”
Kavelashvili was the only candidate in the presidential election held through an electoral college dominated by the increasingly authoritarian Georgia Dream. The opposition did not put forward a candidate and boycotted the vote, claiming that the voting process had been rigged from the beginning.
Protests have spread across the country since the October vote and intensified after the Georgian government decided to suspend the country’s EU accession negotiations.
