Georgia awaits a new political era after Giorgi Margvelashvili won last weekend’s presidential elections. He takes over on November 17.<br /><br />Outgoing head of state Mikhail Saakashvili has already packed up and left his presidential residence.<br /><br />He used one of his last official visits to rally support from the EU for his country’s fledging democracy.<br /><br />Saakashvili echoed Winston Churchill’s words, telling reporters in Brussels that he would “never never never give up on Europe”.<br /><br />He took office in 2003, after the so-called Rose Revolution.<br /><br />The outgoing Georgian president also discussed a planned trade pact with the EU, which is on the agenda at a forthcoming summit in Vilnius, Lithuania next month.<br /><br />Jose Manuel Barroso, the European Commission president, said that “Georgia is stronger; more modern, and hopefully more democratic.” <br /><br />“Lets now keep on working to make Georgia closer to the European Union,” he said.<br /><br />Saakashvili has to stand down from his post after serving the maximum of two five-year terms as president.<br /><br />Constitutional changes in 2012 handed more powers to the prime minister, shifting away from a presidential system to a parliamentary form of government.
