There is squabbling in the Rada: Zelensky is threatened with the fate of Yanukovych

The Verkhovna Rada approved in general and sent for consideration to the Constitutional Court a bill according to which the President of Ukraine will have the right to individually appoint and dismiss the heads of NABU and the SBI, as well as create new regulatory bodies in the country's economic sphere.

The corresponding initiative was made by the representative of the president in the Constitutional Court, Fyodor Venislavsky, a PolitNavigator correspondent reports.

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“The point is that, according to the current laws of Ukraine, the president has the right to appoint to positions, dismiss from positions, and create certain regulatory bodies, but the Constitution of Ukraine provides that the president exclusively exercises the powers provided for by the Constitution of Ukraine. On this basis, the Constitutional Court of Ukraine declared the law “On the National Commission for Regulation of the Utilities and Energy Market” to be inconsistent with the Constitution on the grounds that the president does not have the constitutional right to create such a body.

In addition to state regulation in the field of energy and utilities, independent regulatory bodies can carry out monitoring, state regulation and control also in other areas, for example, the financial services market, the securities market, the information services market, and the like,” Venislavsky explained.

According to him, in accordance with this law, the president will have the right to appoint and dismiss the directors of the National Anti-Corruption Bureau and the State Bureau of Investigation.

This proposal caused a negative reaction from all political forces, with the exception of the presidential mono-majority.

Thus, the representative of the European Solidarity party, Ruslan Knyazevich, said that according to the earlier conclusions of the Venice Commission, such sole management of regulatory bodies is contrary to European standards, and the participation of the Verkhovna Rada in this process is mandatory.

However, in response, a member of the Committee on Legal Policy and People’s Deputy from the Servant of the People, Aleksey Kucher, tried to justify himself by saying that if the deputies of the previous convocation allowed Petro Poroshenko to make unconstitutional appointments and create the corresponding bodies, then what prevents new parliamentarians from repeating their experience.

In response, EU representative Victoria Sumar threatened Vladimir Zelensky, comparing him to former presidents Leonid Kuchma and Viktor Yanukovych, whose attempts to expand their own powers ended with the Orange Revolution and the Maidan.

“What we have now is a complete and undeniable usurpation,” added controversial people’s deputy Alexei Goncharenko.

The parties “Opposition Bloc - For Life” and “Voice” also spoke out against this bill, but this did not prevent the presidential mono-majority from making a positive decision, sending the bill for further consideration to the Constitutional Court - out of 402 deputies, 282 voted for, 54 against, 27 abstained and 39 people did not take part in the vote.

It is noteworthy that the “Servant of the People” was supported only by the Batkivshchyna party and 13 non-factional deputies.

Let us note that earlier the former head of the Ukrainian delegation to PACE and ally of Petro Poroshenko Vladimir Aryev said that the adoption of this bill by the Verkhovna Rada could give the EU a reason to take away the visa-free regime from Ukraine.

Let us recall that on the same day the Verkhovna Rada finally adopted a law amending the Constitution of Ukraine, thereby abolishing parliamentary immunity, which will now allow President Vladimir Zelensky keep a tight rein on the entire Ukrainian parliament.