Georgian ex-footballer turned far-right politician, Mikheil Kavelashvili is ready to become Tbilisi’s future figurehead president in an indirect election denounced as illegitimate by the current pro-EU leader.
Picked by the governing Georgian Dream Party as a loyalist, the former forward for the English Premier League side, Manchester City is known for his expletive-laden parliament speeches and tirades against government critics and LGBTQ people.
He is expected to be voted into the role by an electoral college controlled by Georgian Dream Party, after the party abolished the use of popular votes to elect the president under controversial constitutional changes passed in 2017.
Read Also: 2 bandits die while testing IEDs in Zamfara
Kavelashvili being catapulted to the role comes at a dramatic moment as thousands of anti-government protesters have flooded Tbilisi for weeks, furious at Georgian Dream Party 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.
Sporting a moustache and combed back hair, his comments on LGBTQ people have raised alarm, as Georgian Dream has adopted Kremlin-style laws curbing their rights.
The ex-footballer slammed the West for wanting “as many people as possible (to be) neutral and tolerant toward the LGBTQ ideology, which supposedly defends the weak but is in fact, an act against humanity.”
