Tbilisi Mayor Kakha Kaladze will be donating his mayoral salary

Newly elected Mayor of Tbilisi Kakha Kaladze has refused his mayoral salary.

Tbilisi City Hall’s press office said Kaladze will serve as mayor without using his monthly salary "for his personal needs.” Instead, he will be donating this money.

Tbilisi Mayor’s salary is 3,180 GEL (about $1,200 / €1,000) per month.

"Kaladze will not take this money for his personal use. The Mayor’s salary will be donated to finance different social needs”, the press office said.

It added that there are too many financially challenged citizens whose case does not fit into any social programs offered. Kaladze’s salary will be used to benefit such people.

Before taking the mayoral position earlier this month, Kaladze served as energy minister and he did not take his salary at that post either.

Photo from Kakha Kaladze's official Facebook page. 

Kaladze, a retired football star, started his political career prior to the 2012 parliamentary elections where the newly created opposition party he joined defeated the nine-year rule of the United National Movement. Immediately after the elections in October of 2012, Kaladze was appointed as vice prime minister and energy minister and held the position for almost five years.

Before entering into politics, Kaladze had a successful, 20-year football career. In 2001, he became the most expensive Georgian player for whom football club Milan paid €16 million. He stayed in Milan for nine years, and simultaneously captained the Georgian national team. He has been named the best Georgian player of the year for a record five times.

He won the Tbilisi mayoral elections with 51.1 percent of votes this October.