By Felix Light
TBILISI (Reuters) - As protesters confronted massed ranks of riot police in front of Georgia's parliament last week, a slightly built woman picked her way through the crowd.
At a moment of national crisis, President Salome Zourabichvili had decided she needed to be with the people on the streets.
Placing her hand on the riot shield of one of the black-clad, helmeted police officers, she appealed to their consciences.
"Your duty is to protect the statehood of this country and its citizens. It is not your duty to disperse the people. Are you serving Russia or Georgia?" she asked calmly.
"Do you not answer to your president? Do you not think about your future, your country, your children, or even your ancestors?"
The encounter was prompted by the ruling Georgian Dream party's announcement a few hours earlier that it was suspending efforts to join the European Union and renouncing any EU financial support until 2028. It said the move had been prompted by a "cascade of insults" from the EU.
For Zourabichvili, it was a betrayal of Georgia's European destiny and a sign that the country, once part of the Soviet Union, is slipping back under Russia's influence as part of a "hybrid war" being waged by Moscow - something the Georgian government and the Kremlin deny.
The standoff - closely watched by Russia, the United States and the EU - marks a crossroads in Georgia's modern history as thousands of protesters confront police each night in the capital.
It is also the culmination of a long battle between Zourabichvili and the ruling party, which backed her for the presidency in 2018 but within five years was trying to impeach her.
PRESIDENT CALLS GEORGIA'S ELECTION A 'TOTAL FRAUD'
When Georgian Dream was declared the winner of parliamentary elections seven weeks ago with results that two U.S. polling organisations said were statistically impossible, she denounced the outcome as a "total fraud" and urged people to protest.
In an interview with Reuters this week, in English, she cast herself as a champion of the people and upholder of the constitution, in which Georgia's aspiration to join the EU is enshrined.
Her mission, she said, was to "represent the voice of those people that are on the streets" and those who had resigned from public posts to protest against the government's decision.
"They need to have somebody to rally around and I'm that figure," she said, promising to play that role "until we get new elections and until we get a legitimate government".
The government and election commission deny the October poll was rigged. Prime Minister Irakli Kobakhidze said Zourabichvili had backed the opposition in the election but lost, and was struggling to come to terms with leaving office when her six-year term expires on Dec. 29. "Her emotional state is unstable," he said on Tuesday.
Zourabichvili, 72, says she will not step down because the parliament formed after the election has no legitimacy to choose her successor. She says her sole demand is for a fresh election.
Georgia's struggle to escape Russian dominance and become part of Europe has been a lifelong theme for Zourabichvili.
She was born in Paris in 1952 into a family that had fled when Georgia was incorporated into the Soviet Union in 1921, after just three years of independence. As she grew up during the Cold War, she has said, the country seemed "mysterious and unattainable". Her first visit was not until 1986.
FRENCH DIPLOMAT BECOMES GEORGIAN PRESIDENT
Zourabichvili graduated from top schools and forged a successful career as a French diplomat, becoming ambassador to Georgia in 2003.
The following year, under an unusual agreement approved by both countries' presidents, she was named Georgian foreign minister and served for 19 months. She later went into Georgian politics, becoming a member of parliament in 2016.
Elected to the largely ceremonial role of president with the support of Georgian Dream, she lobbied the EU successfully to grant Georgia "candidate membership" status last year, saying the country of 3.7 million people could help ensure security and stability in the Black Sea region.
But relations with the party worsened steadily. In October 2023 it tried unsuccessfully to impeach her in parliament on grounds that she had overstepped her powers by making unauthorised foreign trips, not least to Brussels.
In May 2024, she vetoed a law requiring NGOs to register as "foreign agents" if they receive more than 20% of their funding from abroad. The government said it was necessary to defend Georgia from outside interference; critics said it resembled a law the Kremlin has used to crack down on dissent in Russia.
When parliament overrode her veto, Zourabichvili accused lawmakers in the ruling party of choosing "Russian slavery".
Now the clock is ticking towards a showdown with the government over her refusal to step down.
Asked if she would resist any attempt to expel her from the presidential palace, Zourabichvili told Reuters: "No, I'm not attached to a building or to anything of that kind. It's a question of principle, of symbol."
For the Georgian people, she said, it was important "to see that I'm on their side and I continue to be the one that represents the legitimate power and the independent Georgia".