On 11 January 2019, Zurabishvili conveyed her first statement to the public after a long time of silence. She named the three priorities of her presidency. Firstly, she wants to put Georgian interests back into the international focus. This, she wants to achieve by expanding and improving relations between Georgia and the European Union. As third goal, she named improved relations with the Georgian diaspora, while she left it unclear whether by that she meant the contact with the approximately 1.5 million Georgians living outside of the country or the relations with the populations of the two occupied regions of the country, Abkhazia and South Ossetia (Tskhinvali Region). Since as French citizen Ms Zurabishvili is entitled to a French pension, she said that she would donate her earnings from the presidency to a charitable organisation.
While on the foreign policy agenda, both the new president and the majority of the Georgian population agreed, there were certain issues where Ms Zurabishvili left a sizeable number of citizens unsatisfied. In the election campaign, the differences between the two political camps were so extreme, that it came to a downright division of Georgia’s society. This manifested in personal attacks on both sides. It will therefore be an important taks for Ms Zurabishvili to calm the waves and lead society back on a track of constructive discussion.