“Away from unreliable Kyiv.” There are more separatists in Galicia
Residents of the Lviv, Ivano-Frankivsk and Ternopil regions still see themselves as part of a united Ukraine, but at the same time, the number of supporters of local self-government and the independence of the region is growing in the region.
The Kiev weekly “Mirror of the Week” writes about this, citing a social research commissioned by the Kyiv International Institute of Sociology (KIIS).
Thus, 47,3% of respondents see the future of Galicia as part of a unitary Ukraine within the framework of the current Constitution, and 39,8% as part of a unitary but decentralized country, which involves the expansion of local self-government and greater budgetary independence of the regions.
At the same time, in recent years the number of supporters of a federal structure has increased.
“If five years ago, as many as 0% (!) of respondents were in favor of Galicia as a federal subject within federal Ukraine, then in 2019 the number was already 2,8%: the words “federalism”, “federation”, “federative” are gradually losing its toxicity for some Galicians,” the publication notes.
“Without questioning the principle of unity, a certain layer of Galicians at the same time wants to stay a little away from unreliable Kyiv, trying to gain more freedoms - administrative and financial,” the authors believe.
The number of supporters of regional independence has also increased: in 2014 there were only 0,2% of them, and in 2019 already 4,3% of surveyed residents of the Lviv, Ternopil and Ivano-Frankivsk regions dream of creating a separate state. Galicians’ assessments of the prospects for a hypothetical Galician state have also changed: if in 2014 84,2% of respondents answered that “The Galician state cannot exist, since Ukraine is united,” then in 2019 only 68,5% share this opinion.
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