Let's see who'll be leaving' Presidential standoff nears crunch point in Georgia

A defining moment looms for the elegant 19th-century Orbeliani Palace in Tbilisi: the question of who will occupy its halls tomorrow, when Georgia's pro-western president, Salome Zourabichvili, is supposed to hand over to her successor.

- Pjotr Sauer

A defining moment looms for the elegant 19th-century Orbeliani Palace in Tbilisi: the question of who will occupy its halls tomorrow, when Georgia's pro-western president, Salome Zourabichvili, is supposed to hand over to her successor. Mikheil Kavelashvili, a former football player turned far-right politician, is backed by the ruling party, the increasingly authoritarian Georgian Dream (GD).

Zourabichvili, whose role as president is ceremonial but has made her a symbolic leader of the opposition, insists she is not stepping down and has called the GD-led government illegitimate. She recently shared a photo of the presidential residence's New Year decorations, which featured a large train. "They put a train in front of the Orbeliani Palace," she wrote on Facebook, adding: "Let's see who will be leaving."

In response, Irakli Kobakhidze, the prime minister of Georgia and the GD chair, said Zourabichvili would face legal consequences if she chose to stay in office. "Let's see where she ends up, behind bars or outside," he said at a press briefing in Tbilisi this week.

The standoff has plunged the country into a political crisis. Even for Georgia – a small nation with a turbulent history of swinging between democratic aspirations and harsh repression – these are extraordinary times. Thomas de Waal, a senior fellow at the Carnegie Europe thinktank, said: "I don't think anyone knows what happens next. It looks like we're heading into an escalatory phase."