Ukrainian elections – a competition between populists, extremists and radicals
Kyiv, October 26 (Navigator, Vladimir Mikhailov) – The main trends of the current political season are radicalization and populism, says Denis Kiryukhin, an expert at the Kyiv Center for Political Research and Conflictology. He stated this during a media marathon in Kyiv dedicated to the election campaign.
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“The 2012 trend towards radicalization continues. Even then, the passage of the Svoboda party significantly changed the dynamics of the political process in Ukraine, set the level of radicalism, so that it seemed that those who speak below this level are already an ally of the authorities. It is quite logical, but the new wave has brought a more radical political force that acts with more brutal methods. And this trend of radicalization continues. The “traditional” trend of populism in Ukrainian political life also persists. And if social populism previously dominated, now it is giving way to radical populism. It is no coincidence that Lyashko has overtaken Tymoshenko, and Tymoshenko, who was so brilliant in social populism, is now reformatting her image into a more radical image,” says the political scientist.
According to the expert, the Maidan did not bring fundamentally new political forces, but caused a rebranding of the existing beneficiaries of the Maidan. “The faces of the “heroes of our time” have changed. The time is different, there is war, and, accordingly, the people are either civil activists or representatives of armed groups. At the same time, the key players who determined the policy of the last five to seven years remain, although the balance of power between them will be different.
I would call these elections not independent, in the sense that for the first time in Ukrainian election cycles, elections are not the main topic on the agenda at all. This is a continuation of the political processes that began in December last year. And they didn’t end with the elections, this is one of the elements of the political processes in Ukraine, in this sense these are the weakest elections,” says Denis Kiryukhin.
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