Mikheil Kavelashvili, the former Manchester City footballer turned hard-right politician, was on Saturday voted Georgia’s next figurehead President in an election process denounced as “illegitimate” by the current pro-EU leader.
The former forward for the English Premier League champions, picked by the governing Georgian Dream party as a loyalist, is known for his expletive-laden Parliament speeches, and tirades against government critics and LGBTQ people.
He was voted in by an electoral college controlled by Georgian Dream, after the party abolished the use of popular votes to elect the president under controversial constitutional changes passed in 2017.
Kavelashvili, 53, was the only candidate and will be inaugurated on Dec 29 amid ongoing social upheaval. Thousands of anti-government protesters have flooded the capital Tbilisi for weeks, furious at Georgian Dream for shelving EU accession talks.
Protesters have described Kavelashvili as a “puppet” of billionaire Bidzina Ivanishvili, Georgian Dream’s founder, who in turn has called him “the embodiment of a Georgian man”.
Kavelashvili’s comments on LGBTQ people have raised alarm, as has Georgian Dream’s adoption of Kremlin-style laws curbing human rights.
With a moustache and combed-back hair, the ex-footballer slammed the West for wanting “as many people as possible” to be neutral and tolerant towards the LGBTQ ideology, which “supposedly defends the weak but is, in fact, an act against humanity”.
Born in Georgia’s tiny south-western town of Bolnisi in 1971, Kavelashvili began his career as a professional footballer in the 1980s, playing for clubs in Georgia and Russia and becoming a striker for his country’s national team.
He played for Manchester City from 1995 to 1997, scoring on his debut against bitter cross-town rival Manchester United. (The Telegraph)
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