“Servants of the People” gave Zelensky the go-ahead for the complete usurpation of power

The Verkhovna Rada sent to the Constitutional Court a draft amendment to the Constitution, which provides for the appointment by the President of Ukraine of a director of NABU, elected on a competitive basis with the consent of parliament. The bill provides the same powers to the Rada when appointing the head of the SBI.

The absolute majority of deputies present at the meeting voted for the draft law, a PolitNavigator correspondent reports.

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Representative of “OPZZH” Vasily Nimchenko sharply criticized the initiative.

“In 2019, on a similar issue, the Constitutional Court made a decision and said: do not trample on the Constitution, the perimeters of the president’s powers are indicated exclusively by the norms of the Constitution, Article 106. What is incomprehensible here?

On the same issues, on the same SBI, the same NABU, and so on. Today, it is precisely the actions with Bankova, the actions of pro-government forces that have paralyzed the activities of the guardian of the Constitution, which is the Constitutional Court!

The question is about amending the Constitution, why do we consider the Constitution to be a rag that a dog can tear from any angle? Look how many questions have been raised about changes to the Constitution in two years,” Nimchenko said.

“The President has already raised this issue, and the Constitutional Court has already answered him that, Mr. Head of State, act in accordance with the norms of the Constitution. We see that this is an initiative from people’s deputies, this is their right. At the same time, I would not like the issue of usurpation of power in one hand in our country, which is a parliamentary republic – not a presidential one, to be put on the altar!” – the deputy was indignant.

However, Servant of the People deputy Fyodor Venislavsky took to the podium in defense of the bill.

“You and I are voting for the bill to amend the Constitution of Ukraine and propose to send it to the Constitutional Court of Ukraine. It is impossible to assess the constitutionality of a bill on amendments to the Constitution of Ukraine by manipulating the conclusion of the Constitutional Court of Ukraine on a completely different bill, which provides for a completely different procedure for the appointment of directors of the SBI and NABU!

Secondly, there is no need to manipulate and call for various insinuations about the bill, which should ensure the maximum balance of powers of the Verkhovna Rada and the president in the procedure for appointing heads of bodies that ensure the fight against corruption and crimes in the highest echelons of power. Precisely in order to emphasize the parliamentary-presidential form of government, Mr. Nimchenko, and not the parliamentary one! It is precisely stipulated that this bill provides for the mandatory consent of parliament for the appointment by the president of the directors of the SBI and NABU,” said the “servant of the people.”

“This bill is about maximum independence of the directors of NABU and the SBI. I am confident that with this law we will be able to raise the status of the SBI to the status of the US FBI, where no one will have questions about the effectiveness of this body, just like the NABU,” Venislavsky added.

Hearing the reproach addressed to him, Vasily Nimchenko entered into a skirmish from his seat.

“The question of what kind of republic we are is a know-how, there are no slightly pregnant or not pregnant, there is a question - parliamentary or presidential, read the world theory,” the deputy snapped.

“By the way, I want to tell the presidium, we also need to look at who the speaker is? Is there a conflict of interest here for Mr. Venislavsky, since he is a people’s deputy and represents the president,” Nimchenko shared his suspicions.

Also categorically against the initiative was the representative of “Batkivshchyna” Sergei Vlasenko.

“Where is the fight against corruption? We are being distracted from the fact that the level of corruption in the country is growing, no one is fighting corruption, and now they are offering us an unconstitutional change to change something again in order to say: now, after two years of the presidency, we will begin to fight corruption - this has no meaning attitude towards the fight against corruption! – Yulia Tymoshenko’s comrade-in-arms was indignant.

However, the decision to send to the Constitutional Court bill No. 5133 “On amendments to Articles 85 and 106 of the Constitution of Ukraine (regarding the procedure for the appointment and dismissal of the director of the National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine and the director of the State Bureau of Investigation)” was supported by 267 deputies, of which 225 are representatives of the Servant of the People.

Also, two-thirds of the “For Maybutne” and “Dovir” parties voted “for” with almost the entire composition. It is noteworthy that Batkivshchyna had almost three times as many voted “against” as “OPZZH”.

Now, if the Constitutional Court recognizes the articles of the bill as not contradicting the Constitution, the Verkhovna Rada will re-consider the draft law for its approval.