President Mikheil Saakashvili Spouse(s) Janri Kashia (1993) Preceded by Tedo Japaridze Name Salome Zurabishvili | Succeeded by Gela Bezhuashvili Role French Politician | |
Born 18 March 1952 (age 72) Paris, France ( 1952-03-18 ) Alma mater Sciences PoColumbia University Education Columbia University, Sciences Po | ||
Secretary General Ban Ki-moon (UN) Political party The Way of Georgia | ||
Georgia elects its first female president, Salome Zurabishvili, Saakashvili claims "massive fraud"
Salome Zurabishvili (Georgian: სალომე ზურაბიშვილი) (born 18 March 1952) is a French-born Georgian politician, from 2004 to 2005 Foreign Minister of Georgia and a former diplomat in the French service. Currently she is an independent MP in the Parliament of Georgia. She was the Coordinator of the Panel of Experts assisting the UN Security Council’s Iran Sanctions Committee.
Contents
- Georgia elects its first female president Salome Zurabishvili Saakashvili claims massive fraud
- Euronews speaks exclusively to Georgias new President elect Salome Zurabishvili
- Biography
- Works
- References
Euronews speaks exclusively to Georgia’s new President-elect, Salome Zurabishvili
Biography
Zurabishvili was born in Paris on 18 March 1952, into a family of Georgian political emigrants. She attended some of the most prestigious French schools, such as the Institut d'Etudes Politiques de Paris (Sciences Po), and began a master's program at Columbia University in New York in the academic year of 1972-1973, taking courses with Zbigniew Brzezinski. She abandoned her studies and joined the French foreign service in 1974, becoming a career diplomat with jobs in Rome, the United Nations, Brussels, Washington, etc. The first time Zurabishvili visited Georgia was in 1986 during a break from her job at the French Embassy in Washington.
Salome Zurabishvili was Head of the Division of International and Strategic Issues of National Defence General Secretariat of France in 2001-2003. She was appointed the Ambassador of France to Georgia in 2003.
Mikhail Saakashvili President of Georgia nominated her as Foreign Minister in his new government and Zurabishvili was the first female to be appointed to this post in Georgia on 18 March 2004.
She was sacked by Prime Minister Zurab Nogaideli late on 19 October 2005 after a series of disputes with members of Parliament. She had also been heavily criticized by a number of Georgian ambassadors. Shortly before her dismissal was announced, Zurabishvili resigned from the French foreign service, which had continued to pay her a salary while she was minister, and announced that she would remain in Georgia to go into politics.
In November 2005 she set up the organization Salome Zurabishvili’s Movement. In January 2006 she announced the establishment of a new political party Georgia's Way.
Although Zurabishvili enjoys some degree of reputation in Georgia she has not been able to establish herself in the political field. At the city council elections in Tbilisi on 5 October 2006 only 2.77% of the constituency voted for her party. Six months before an opinion poll conducted by the Georgian weekly Kviris Palitra suggested that she would garner 23.1% of the votes at presidential elections. Since October 2007, her party was part of the United Opposition alliance which nominated Zurabishvili as a Prospective Prime Minister in case of their candidate Levan Gachechiladze's victory in the January 2008 presidential election.
In course of the Georgian presidential election in 2008, Salome Zurabishvili and many other politicians in opposition agreed to the Patriarch of Georgia Ilia II's indicated support to the establishment of a constitutional monarchy under the Bagrationi dynasty.
On 12 November 2010, Zurabishvili announced her withdrawal from the leadership of Georgia's Way. She was succeeded by Kakha Seturidze.
Salome Zurabishvili was married to the Georgian journalist Janri Kashia (1940–2012), with two children.
Beside Georgian and French, she speaks English, German, and Italian.