Independent MP in the Georgian parliament Salome Zurabishvili, who holds both Georgian and French citizenship, has launched procedures to renounce French citizenship, the head of the Parliament’s Legal Committee Eka Beselia said.
Zourabichvili, who served as Georgia’s Foreign Minister under the United National Movement leadership and then opposed the party, has launched the procedures just before the Georgian presidential elections this autumn.
"If she decides to participate in the race, I believe that she will have the highest chance of winning in the first round of the elections, as she is a very experienced politician,” Beselia said.
The Georgian Dream ruling party has not yet nominated its candidate for the upcoming race.
Zourabichvili was born in Paris in a family of Georgian political emigrants on March 18, 1952. 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.
She abandoned her studies and joined the French foreign service in 1974. The first time Zourabichvili visited Georgia was in 1986 during a break from her job at the French Embassy in Washington.She was appointed as the Ambassador of France to Georgia in 2003.
Zourabichvili was the first female to be appointed to this post of Foreign Minister in Georgia in 2004.
In November 2005 she set up the organization Salome Zourabichvili’s Movement. In January 2006 she announced the establishment of a new political party Georgia's Way.
On 12 November 2010, Zourabichvili announced her withdrawal from the leadership of Georgia's Way and continued her career abroad, as a coordinator of UN panel of experts on Iran.
In the 2016 parliamentary elections in Georgia, Zourabichvili participated as Tbilisi Mtatsminda District majoritarian candidate and won the race, took her seat in the legislative body, Agenda.ge recalls.
