President Salome Zourabichvili slams Georgia's government as 'illegitimate'

Salome Zourabichvili was inaugurated as Georgia's first female president in 2018. While her role as head of state may be largely ceremonial, her personal politics aren't. She's staunchly pro-Western, sees Georgia's future as part of the European Union and is keen to see her country move out of Russia's orbit. That’s put her in direct conflict with the Georgian Dream, the populist pro-Russia party that's headed Georgia's majority government since 2016.

Zourabichvili has publicly slammed some of the more contentious pieces of the party's legislation, refused to sign others into law, and now calls their rule "illegitimate" after disputed elections in October.

European observers on 26 October polling day say they witnessed instances of voter intimidation and bribery at the polls and the opposition, which has subsequently boycotted parliament, claim Russia meddled in the electoral process to ensure the Moscow-sympathetic Georgian Dream would win.

The EU slammed the process and demanded a rerun. In response, Georgian Dream said it was suspending accession talks until at least 2028.

That decision has sparked a wave of unrest across the country which Zourabichvili sees as unprecedented. In an interview with Euronews, she explains more about what's happening now and, more importantly, what happens next.

Clearly not. Because the elections that led to this parliament and to the government are not legitimate. They are not recognised by anyone. They have not been recognised by the Georgian population, in the first place. They have not been recognised by the political forces in the country, because no opposition party has recognised them as winning these partly rigged elections and nobody has entered the Parliament. So it's one party, and