Georgian lawmakers elected Mihailo Kavelashvili, a staunch critic of the West, as president
Kavelashvili will replace the Western-oriented President Salome Zourabishvili, a fierce critic of the ruling Georgian Dream party.
A move by the ruling Georgian Dream party to freeze the EU accession process until 2028, abruptly halting a long-standing national goal enshrined in the country's constitution, has sparked widespread anger in Georgia, where opinion polls show that seeking EU membership is overwhelmingly popular.
Kavelashvili, a former professional soccer player, has strongly anti-Western, often conspiratorial views. In public speeches this year, he has repeatedly claimed that Western intelligence agencies are trying to bring Georgia into a war with Russia, Reuters reports.
Hundreds of protesters gathered in front of the parliament ahead of the election. Some played football in the street in front of the building and waved red cards at the parliament building, a mocking reference to Kavelashvili's sports career.
Demonstrator Vezi Kohodze described the vote as a "treason" against what he said was Georgians' desire to integrate with the West.
"Today's election represents the system's clear desire to return Georgia to its Soviet roots," he said.
Georgian presidents are elected by a college of electors made up of deputies and local government representatives. Out of 225 voters present, 224 voted for Kavelashvili, who was the only nominated candidate.
All opposition parties have boycotted parliament since the October elections, in which official results gave Georgian Dream nearly 54 percent of the vote, but which the opposition says were irregular.
Kavelashvili was nominated last month by Bidzina Ivanishvili, a billionaire former prime minister who is seen as the country's top leader and has moved to deepen ties with neighboring Russia, which polls show many Georgians dislike.
Kavelashvili is the leader of People's Power, an anti-Western splinter group of the ruling party, and co-authored the "foreign agents" law, which requires organizations that receive more than 20 percent of their funding from abroad to register as agents of foreign influence, with heavy fines for violations.
Outgoing president Salome Zurabishvili, a pro-EU critic of the ruling Georgian Dream party, has positioned herself as a leader of the protest movement and said she will remain president after her term expires. She believes that the parliament is illegitimate as a result of the alleged fraud in the October elections.
In a post on the X network shortly before the vote, Zurabishvili said the choice of her successor was a "mockery of democracy".
Opposition parties have said they will continue to consider Zurabishvili the legitimate president, even after Kavelashvili is inaugurated on December 29.
At a briefing after the vote, Prime Minister Irakli Kobahidze congratulated Kavelashvili and called the outgoing president an "agent" of unspecified foreign powers.
Georgia has been seen for decades as one of the most pro-Western and democratic successor states to the Soviet Union, but relations with the West have soured this year as Georgian Dream pushed through laws on foreign agents and LGBT rights that critics say are Russian-inspired and draconian.
Western countries have raised alarm over an apparent U-turn in Georgia's foreign policy and authoritarian shift, while the EU has threatened sanctions over its crackdown on protests that saw hundreds arrested.
Since the outbreak of war in Ukraine, Georgian Dream has moved to improve ties with Russia.
Tens of thousands of protesters have gathered in front of the parliament every night for more than two weeks. Some threw fireworks at the police, who used water cannons and tear gas to break up the demonstrations.
The government has repeatedly said that the protests represent an attempt to carry out a pro-European revolution and take power by force.
Georgia's Ministry of Internal Affairs said more than 150 police officers were injured during the protests.
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