Salome Zourabichvili

Salome Zourabichvili ( , , ; born 18 March 1952) is a French-born Georgian politician and former diplomat, currently serving as the fifth president of Georgia, in office since December 2018. She is the nation’s first female president, a position she will occupy for a term of six years. As a result of constitutional changes coming into effect in 2024, Zourabichvili is expected to be Georgia's last popularly elected president; future heads of state are to be elected indirectly by a parliamentary college of electors.

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.

After disagreements with Georgia's then-ruling party United National Movement, in 2006 Zourabichvili founded 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 United National Movement nominee Grigol Vashadze. During her presidential campaign Zurabichvili was endorsed by the ruling Georgian Dream party; however, following the 2020–2021 Georgian political crisis, Zourabichvili became increasingly alienated from the Georgian government, a rift that worsened after the 2023 Georgian protests. The inter-institutional conflict eventually led to the Parliament launching an impeachment proceeding against Zourabichvili in September 2023, but they failed to gather sufficient votes to impeach her. Provided by Wikipedia