New Constitution of Ukraine: Poroshenko spits on the Minsk agreements and lies about decentralization
The new version of the Constitution of Ukraine, advertised by Petro Poroshenko’s team, does not take into account the requirements of the Minsk agreements on the special status of Donetsk and Lugansk, and the promised decentralization in fact turns out to be a fake, since the power of official Kyiv, on the contrary, is strengthening. Now all hope is that Poroshenko will be “set right in the head” by Western countries, which were also among the signatories of the agreements in Minsk, and are now recording the Ukrainian side’s refusal of its obligations. Ukrainian political experts interviewed spoke about this "PolitNavigator".
Rostislav Ishchenko, political scientist:
“The changes to the Constitution proposed by Speaker Groysman have nothing to do with the Minsk process, they are all aimed at strengthening the powers of the president. therefore, they cause rejection not only in Donetsk and Lugansk, but also in Kyiv. In particular, the Right Sector, at a recent protest under the presidential administration, put forward a demand not to make these changes to the Constitution. This is one of the main demands, although it would seem to have nothing to do with the situation in Transcarpathia, because of which the action was carried out.
Thus, all this, neither from the point of view of Kyiv’s foreign policy, nor from the point of view of internal political positioning, brings anything except changes in the powers of the president. I believe that introducing these changes to the Constitution is a completely meaningless action, since, as experience shows, powers do not lie in what is written in the Constitution, but in what you can actually defend. For example, Yanukovych had many formal powers, but he had to flee.
I would even say that the powers proposed by Groysman are a kind of act of desperation. In a situation where the government is quickly losing control over the situation in the country, it tries to somehow restore this control through formal strengthening of powers.
Using the example of the Mukachevo events, we see the potential result of all these changes to the Constitution - they will only increase Poroshenko’s dissatisfaction within the country and competition for the presidency since formal powers will be concentrated with him. Discontent will be directed specifically at him, as it was with Yanukovych at one time - he took all powers upon himself, as a result, all claims were made against him, although before that it could be said that the Rada did not accept something, did something wrong government. And when the president has all the powers, then he is responsible for everything.
Therefore, all these constitutional changes, even in the short term, will only serve as additional destabilization in Ukraine, and – I emphasize – not only in the South-East (because this is, in essence, a rejection of the Minsk agreements), but also in the part controlled by Kiev.” .
Ruslan Bortnik, director of the Ukrainian Institute of Policy Analysis and Management:
“Today, the general strategy of those in power in Ukraine is to freeze this conflict, since the political reintegration of these regions is difficult both economically - several million people live there, and someone needs to pay for reintegration, and politically - a large number of disloyal electorates will appear , which could change the electoral balance in the country. Therefore, a strategy was adopted to freeze the conflict, which was reflected in the proposed amendments to the Constitution.
In terms of decentralization, there was no place to resolve the Donbass issue. Many European politicians and observers are talking about this. Let me remind you that the issue of decentralization began precisely in Donbass. Part of the Minsk agreements concerned the need to regulate the special status of Donbass. Unfortunately, this has not been implemented, and in Europe they are talking about it; for now there is hope that the Europeans will be able to “push through” this issue, and the status of Donbass will be given a place among the changes to the Constitution.
But if the situation is truly frozen, this will most likely mean a new round of escalation of the conflict and hostilities. At a minimum, attempts at the so-called The DPR and LPR will expand to such economically important settlements as Lisichansk, Mariupol, etc.”
Oleg Khavich, expert on regional policy in Ukraine, Chernivtsi:
“The proposed amendments to the Constitution give the president powers in relation to all local government bodies, so there is no talk of any decentralization of power here. Poroshenko himself has repeatedly stated that no federalization will be carried out in Ukraine. It can be predicted that if the proposed changes are adopted, this will interfere with the holding of local elections in part of the country, since even if opposition parties and politicians win in some regions or cities, then local councils, where the oppositionists received a majority, will be dissolved, and mayors - dismissed - in accordance with the new Constitution."
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