Salome Zourabichvili

Salomé Nino Zourabichvili (born 18 March 1952) is a French-born Georgian politician, former diplomat, and the fifth president of Georgia – the first female to be elected as president in the country's history. As a result of the constitutional amendments that came into effect in 2024, Zourabichvili became the last popularly elected president; under the new constitutional rules, moving forward Georgian presidents are to be elected indirectly by the Georgian Electoral Assembly.

Zourabichvili was born in Paris, France, into a family of Georgian political refugees. She joined the French diplomatic service in the 1970s and over three decades went on to occupy a variety of increasingly senior diplomatic positions. From 2003 to 2004, she served as the Ambassador of France to Georgia. In 2004, by mutual agreement between the presidents of France and Georgia, she accepted Georgian nationality and became the Foreign Minister of Georgia. During her tenure at the Georgian Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA), she negotiated a treaty that led to the withdrawal of Russian forces from the undisputed parts of the Georgian mainland.

Following disagreements with Georgia's then-ruling party United National Movement, in 2006 Zourabichvili launched her own political party, which she led until 2010. Ultimately, she was elected to the Georgian Parliament in 2016 as an independent. In 2018, Zourabichvili ran for president as an independent candidate and prevailed in a run-off vote against the UNM nominee Grigol Vashadze. During her presidential campaign, Zourabichvili was endorsed by the ruling Georgian Dream party; however, following the 2020–2021 Georgian political crisis, Zourabichvili became increasingly alienated from the GD-led Georgian government, a rift that worsened following the 2023 Georgian protests. As part of this inter-institutional conflict, the ruling party launched an impeachment proceeding against Zourabichvili in September 2023, but it failed to gather sufficient votes to impeach her. Conflict with the ruling party has since developed into a political crisis in Georgia. When Mikheil Kavelashvili was elected as her successor, the validity of the election was contested, with Zourabichvili stating that she remains president until a legitimate replacement can be elected.