Former Manchester City footballer Mikheil Kavelashvili has been sworn in as the president of Georgia.
The outgoing, pro-Western president, Salome Zourabichvili, insisted that she remains the valid holder of the office and did not recognize the appointment of her opponent.
However, he announced on Sunday morning that he would drop her off at the Orbeliani Palace in Tbilisi.
It comes in the wake of contested general election results, which were mired in allegations of corruption and fraud.
“I will come out of here, come out to you and be with you,” Ms Zourabichvili told a crowd of supporters outside the palace.
“This presidential apartment is a symbol as long as there is a valid president here. I bring legitimacy with me. “
The presidency is necessarily a ceremonial position.
Ms Zourabichvili also called Mr Kavelashvili’s inauguration a “parody”, as protesters gathered in front of the parliament building holding red cards.
Mr Kavelashvili, who was a striker for Manchester City between 1996 and 1997, is backed by Georgia’s ruling Dream Party.
He easily won the presidential election in December, while Georgian Dream controls a 300-seat electoral school that replaced direct presidential elections in 2017.
Georgian Dream retained the country’s parliament in October elections that the opposition says were rigged with help from Moscow.
The main pro-Western parties have boycotted the post-election parliamentary sessions and demanded a re-run of the ballot.
In his speech on Sunday, Kavelashvili, 53, vowed to be “everyone’s president, whether they like it or not. “
He called on the country to unite around “shared values, principles of mutual respect and the long term that we will have to build together. “
Kavelashvili has strong, conspiratorial and anti-Western views.
He was one of the authors of a controversial law requiring organisations that receive more than 20% of their funding from abroad to register as “pursuing the interest of a foreign power” – similar to a Russian law used to discredit organisations critical of the government.
Critics have accused Georgian Dream – founded by the mysterious billionaire Bidzina Ivanishvili, who made his fortune in Russia – of appearing authoritarian and tilted in favor of Moscow, accusations he has denied.
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The party recently passed laws that are being used through the Kremlin to suppress free speech and LGBTQ+ rights.
Last month’s resolution of negotiations over his country’s application to join the EU club added to opposition outrage and galvanized protests.
Georgian Dream has pledged to continue pushing for European Union membership, but also to “reestablish” its ties with Russia.
Zourabichvil was popularly elected by the Georgian Dream party in 2018, but she has become highly critical of the ruling party, accusing it of pro-Russian policies.
He led the opposition to a series of repressive measures implemented by the government and controlled to unite a factional opposition in its attempts to overthrow the government in the October elections.
After the result, he told Sky News: “We won the election. Pro-European forces won the election. The fact that they were stolen is a story. “