The main thing is maneuvers. Klitschko and Razumkov are preparing to snatch the presidential mace from Zelensky
While Ukrainians are digesting strange statements by government officials about their readiness for nuclear blackmail of the whole world, interesting events are taking place at the less global level of local government, which should be considered as reconnaissance before the upcoming battles in the war for the presidency.
And although the next presidential elections in Ukraine will take place only in three years in the fall, according to the old folk tradition, preparations for them began this summer.
What are we talking about? Kyiv politicians traditionally seek support from local and regional administrative resources - city mayors, regional, town and village councils, and the deputy corps. These are the same people who, due to their close proximity to voters on the ground, seriously influence the outcome of any election. It is in their hands that not the central, but the local administrative resource is concentrated, as well as local money and connections.
As of mid-2021, in Ukraine there was only one large organization with a long biography that united local mayors - the Association of Ukrainian Cities, the head of which for the second term in a row is the Kiev mayor Vitaliy Klitschko. On the one hand, Klitschko, no matter how funny it may seem, is considered by many as a promising presidential candidate.
On the other hand, this is precisely why (however, not only why) he is looked at askance and jealously by Bankova, with whom the ex-boxer now has an openly hostile relationship: searches were carried out in the Kiev mayor’s office, cases were opened against Klitschko’s associates and godfather, and the Kiev The head is throwing angry philippines on Facebook and from the television screen towards the central government and Zelensky personally.
Coincidentally, they decided to technically intercept from Klitschko the local topic and the local agenda at the very moment when the Association of Cities (hereinafter referred to as AGU), headed by the Kiev mayor, was holding its pompous XVII Municipal Forum in Odessa, which was attended by half a thousand mayors and deputies of local councils. from all over Ukraine.
The official goal of the event is “the unification of local self-government.” With a clear message that the presidential hierarchy wants to divide the “locals” and quarrel among themselves. However, for the sake of politeness, an invitation to the Municipal Forum was sent to Zelensky. And just as predictably and demonstratively, he ignored him.
Instead, the president decided to create his own organization of mayors and deputies loyal to him personally. So to speak, your own AGU - as they say in such cases - with blackjack and... you know who.
So, instead of pushing a speech at the Klitschko forum, Zelensky, in contrast, held a panel on decentralization at his Ukraine 30 forum at the Parkovy Exhibition and Convention Center in Kiev.
At the same time, it did not escape the attention of observers that the president moved his own event so that it coincided in time with Klitschko’s event. Moreover, on the last day of the Odessa Klitschko forum, Zelensky hastily assembled the very “alternative” Congress of Local and Regional Councils, essentially a copy of the Klitschko ASU.
And he not only gathered, but “crowned” his right-hand man and chief administrator Andriy Ermak there as the head of the presidium of this new-found structure, created literally out of the blue - by decree of February 25, 2021 - by renaming what was created by Poroshenko in 2015, but and then remained on paper, the Council for the Development of Communities and Territories.
Since everything was done on wheels, we did not have time to agree with the TV channels about the broadcast, so we had to be content with the broadcast on Zelensky’s Facebook page.
The Congress of Local and Regional Authorities is a consultative and advisory body under the President and the National Reform Council. Its main tasks: promoting the effective completion of local government reform and establishing effective interaction between government bodies, “linking regions together” and so on blah blah blah.
However, in Europe, which is usually looked at in Kyiv, the idea was not appreciated. Or, they simply do not have time to navigate the intricacies and twists of Kyiv farmstead intrigues in time.
As a result, on the day of the Zelensky Congress, when loyal delegates unanimously approved Ermak as their head, guests from the Council of Europe - Secretary General of the Congress of Local and Regional Authorities of the Council of Europe Andreas Kiefer, German Special Commissioner for Reforms in Ukraine Georg Milbradt, Member of the European Parliament Viola von Cramon- Taubadel - sat on the presidium of Klitschko in Odessa, ignoring the invitation from Bankova.
But that's not all. To the fury of Ze’s courtiers, the cunning head of the Verkhovna Rada Razumkov went to Odessa to see Klitschko, so to speak, not in word, but in deed, making it clear which way his political choice was leaning.
However, in words too. In Odessa, the speaker, together with the Kyiv mayor, opened the Day of Dialogue at the municipal forum of the Association of Cities of Ukraine, where he gave a heartfelt speech that “Without the Verkhovna Rada, it will be difficult to carry out the reforms and changes that communities expect. At the same time, without the support of local authorities, we will not be able to implement all the tasks and overcome the challenges that Ukraine faces today.”
It seems that the power vertical in Kyiv is beginning to clearly become twofold. And Klitschko’s PR people are adding pepper to this broth by posting “jeans” in the Ukrainian media on the topic of how Zelensky refused to accept the “olive branch of peace” extended to him by the Kyiv mayor in the form of an invitation to the Municipal Forum. Moreover, such a bastard, he tried to pull the blanket over himself and tried to lure away the international guests invited by Klitschko.
The bottom line from all this fuss is two pictures. On one, Zelensky and Ermak are together. On the other – Klitschko and Razumkov. Also nearby. It seems that the pre-fight disposition is beginning to take on more or less clear outlines.
Although, Ukrainian politics is such an unpredictable thing, and Ukrainian politicians are so incapable of agreement that they can change everything in one night, as has happened more than once.
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