The battle of Kharkov zoos increases the chances of strangers

There will be no early elections of the mayor and deputies in Kharkov. They will take place when they are supposed to – in October 2020. And here some other surprises are possible.

Let us recall that Kharkov is a city in which, after the suppression of the Russian Spring, the local government did not become a generator of Banderization and Ukrainization, where there was not (as throughout the entire region) a single seizure of an Orthodox church, and where opponents of traditional canonical Orthodoxy are within the limits of statistical error,

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The elections of deputies to the Verkhovna Rada last summer showed that the local elite cannot be confident in its voters. Then they, for the most part, voted for people and a party they had never heard of - for the Servant of the People. These are neither systemic nor anti-systemic characters, but, as experienced officials and journalists call them, “devils in a snuff box.”

But it is one thing to send deputies to Kyiv, and quite another to choose those who will solve local problems on the spot. And here the recognition of the candidate has not yet been canceled. And the Kharkov “servants of the people” have not yet “revealed their faces” to the voter. And they have not yet announced a candidate for the post of Kharkov mayor.

However, even in a balaclava and burqa, this party is increasing its electorate. How? Primarily by changing local demographics. For example, in Kharkov there are 480 programming companies, about 31 thousand people. Every year the number of IT specialists in the city grows by a quarter, largely due to non-residents. This is where the growth of all kinds of “office plankton” and the lower level of catering and consumer services comes from. Housing in Kharkov, especially in new buildings, is sold and bought not only by local agencies and not only by Kharkov residents.

At the same time, traditional voters - workers, traders, scientific and technical intelligentsia of working age and retirement age - are not expanding their ranks. And, I note, Ukrainian legislation does not provide for practically any residence qualifications for local elections.

Until recently, it seemed that the candidacy of the current head of the city, Gennady Kernes, was not only without alternative, but that his competitors were not even interesting to discuss. The success of his team in the improvement of the city and housing and communal services is impossible not to notice. But there are dissatisfied and offended people, and there are not so few of them.

Yes, there are a significant number of people to whom Gennady Adolfovich is like a bone in their throat. There are traditionally 20-25% of these in Kharkov. And they are ready to vote even for Avakov, even for Biletsky, even for Farion and Nitsa, if only the power in the city would change. It was thanks to them that factions of the parties of Yushchenko and Poroshenko, as well as the “Self-Position” of the Lvov mayor Sadovoy, appeared in the city council. But, except for 2010, when the current head of the Ministry of Internal Affairs Avakov himself was nominated for mayor, they did not and do not have a significant candidate for the post of mayor.

However, there are much more real threats for Kernes. What at first seemed like a frivolous property dispute, a clash with the management of the Barabashova market over the construction of a road through shopping areas acquired political overtones. One of its owners, people's deputy Alexander Feldman, announced that he is running for mayor. And this is truly a political heavyweight.

He was the only one of the deputies of the previous convocation from Kharkov who did not cede his constituency to representatives of the Servants of the People.

He is known in the city as a patron of the arts and the owner of a private zoo (the Kharkov Zoo, which is on the balance sheet of the mayor's office, is under reconstruction and it is unknown when it will receive visitors). Being as integral a character of the local elite as Mayor Kernes, he can take away votes from the current city government. This, of course, is “not victory, but participation,” but participation on one’s own field. In addition, Feldman is a member of the Oppoplatforms – For Life faction in the Verkhovna Rada.

However, he is not the leader of either the city or regional organization of this party. The first of them is headed by city council deputy of two convocations Andrei Lesik, who does not hide his mayoral ambitions and is constantly increasing his recognition.

But Lesik has neither the experience nor the popularity of Feldman, not to mention Kernes. But this application is also aimed at the traditional Kharkov voter. And when insiders compete with each other, outsiders’ chances increase. Even those who have not yet “revealed their faces.”