Salome Zurabishvili’s Inaugural Speech – New Messages in Georgian Politics

Abstract

This work aims to analyze the main messages of the inaugural speech of the fifth president of Georgia, Salome Zurabishvili, in order to outline the vision and emphasis with which the newly elected president came to power.

Choosing inaugural speech is due to the fact that the presidents usually combine their future action plans, priorities, affections and views in it and present them to citizens of the country and the international community.

The analysis of the discourse was used as an analysis method where the main focus would be made on the Wodak approach using instruments of designations, declarations, and arguments.

The work focuses on the following topics: characteristics of democratic - civil political culture, based on European values, rich tolerance traditions, formation of consensual culture, national consensus, revival of historic traditions of solidarity between generations, development of regions, irreversibility of European choice, peaceful foreign policy, territorial integrity, strengthening of security, development of culture, increase of women's role, returning historical role in the region, strengthening political institutions, overcome and understand the traumatic past.

Choosing this period was due to the fact that during the transitional period in Georgia, unity of the society has been greatly damaged by the denial of objective logic of inheritance, it practically split public consciousness, when the emphasis was moved towards the distinctive parameters between generations and social groups, and practically split public consciousness. In addition, the first three presidents of Georgia Zviad Gamsakhurdia, Eduard Shevardnadze and Mikheil Saakashvili emphasized that they were beginning building the statehood initially, which in turn led to the revision of priorities of previous governments and in many cases radical alterations. That is why, as the framework of theoretical analysis of this work, I used "removal / preserving" theory by Hegel, based on which Zurabishvili's presidency may be considered as a transitional period when the essentially important role is to maintain the legacy line in establishment of political institutions and democratic governance of the country.

Salome Zourabichvili's message is necessity of maintaining national identity based on culture and rich traditions. The President emphasized the necessity of development of the regions of Georgia, as she is well aware that unequal development has often become the cause of separatism and the breakup of the country. She underlined the historical role of Georgia in the Caucasus region, and how important the stable Caucasus is for the country and the world. Finally, since the inauguration is a public ceremony and is actually a form of social, cultural and political communication, the words spoken by the fifth president of Georgia, Salome Zurabishvili, can be assessed as a speech of Western-style leader, realistic and empty from populist promises.