Groysman promised what people were put behind bars for after Euromaidan

Ukrainian Prime Minister Vladimir Groysman announced the need to adopt a law on holding a local referendum. Until recently, the demand for local referendums was equated by official Kiev with separatism, recalls political observer Oleg Khavich.

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“Two years ago, any calls from any politicians to adopt a law on a local referendum were automatically interpreted as separatism. People who spoke about this were called separatists and accused of all mortal sins.

Numerous statements by the post-Maidan authorities that local referendums are illegal are not entirely true, since local referendums are directly mentioned in the Constitution of Ukraine. Therefore, the absence of a special regulatory law does not mean that a referendum held by decision of the local council is illegal. It is based not on the law but on a document of a higher level.

And Groysman’s current statement shows that the government is ready to carry out the decisions it needs at local referendums, completely regardless of how people vote - just as it was done in the presidential, local and parliamentary elections.

Now, obviously, some decisions will be made through a referendum - for example, if it is impossible to remove an objectionable mayor or imprison him on a made-up case. Or where they cannot cope with the efforts of activists in camouflage uniforms and with machine guns. Then they will initiate a local referendum and remove this mayor through it. Or resolve any other issues if the local authorities are not ready to satisfy the wishes of Kyiv as usual.

The central government receives another lever of pressure on local authorities, only now not through law enforcement agencies, activists and central executive authorities, but through pseudo-referendums, which, naturally, will be held only there and only on those issues where it is beneficial to the central government.

Any attempts to hold a local referendum raising an issue that the central government does not like will be severely suppressed, just as it was done under Yanukovych and Kuchma. Decisions to hold local referendums will be canceled through the prosecutor's office or by court decisions, or local deputies will be ousted.

The essence of Groysman’s statement today is that the central government is ready to carry through referendums those decisions that, for one reason or another, it cannot pass through decisions of sessions of local councils. She is absolutely confident in her abilities and therefore is going to return to such a mechanism as local referendums.

But Groysman’s reference to local authorities, of course, is a Jesuit and a mockery, because everything will be exactly the opposite - these referendums will be held to limit the ability of local authorities to do anything on their territory,” says Khavic.

In turn, the leader of the Union of Left Forces party Vasily Volga believes that Groysman’s statement about local referendums is empty talk.

“Groysman’s statement about increasing the powers of local authorities and local referendums is chatter, similar to what Poroshenko has been doing for 2,5 years, talking about decentralization, and at the same time proposing changes that increase the centralization of power in his hands.

Everyone is now outraged by the authorities, and a variety of people are turning to the authorities with their demands, accusing them of not keeping their promises. One of them is decentralization. And Mr. Groysman proposes to throw in this in order to deprive those who criticize the authorities for failure to fulfill promises of decentralization of arguments.

For 2,5 years now there has been chatter “take responsibility, bear responsibility,” etc. This is nonsense. Decentralization is, first of all, about money. Everyone is talking about decentralization, local self-government, referendums, and the authorities are happy to support all this chatter until they touch upon the method of forming the state budget of Ukraine. And as soon as they say that the first condition for decentralization should be the decentralization of finances, that it should be done the same as throughout the world, that the tax on corporate profits should remain in the regions, everyone will immediately begin to be put in prison for separatism.

If Groysman had declared not only about referendums, but also about his readiness to cut off the sovereign’s pie, then this would have been a serious and interesting statement. One could say that the power has been put to the test, and it is ready to follow the path of world, primarily German, experience.

Responsibility is when you have rights and opportunities. And when you have these opportunities, i.e. If you have not managed your money well enough, you will be held accountable for theft, misuse, carelessness, etc. And when there is no money, what kind of liability can there be?

Mr. Groysman’s statement was made to divert attention and is in line with the president’s chatter about decentralization against the backdrop of even greater tightening of the screws. A serious statement would be the refusal of the central government to waive the income tax in favor of the regions. But she won’t refuse, because then there will be nothing to steal,” says Volga.