At a dead end: Why the new Verkhovna Rada does not promise anything good
Alexey Blyuminov, political commentator, Kyiv-Lugansk
After the announcement of the name list of newly elected deputies of the Rada, it became clear that no surprises could be expected from the newly elected parliament. The coalition agreement signed by the five winning factions finally dotted the i's in this matter.
In fact, today a one-party system has been established in Ukraine. This does not negate the presence of squabbles and contradictions on issues of secondary importance, such as the division of portfolios and “cash flows”, however, in the main, strategic issues for the country, both the Poroshenko Bloc and the Batkivshchyna and Samopomich and the Lyashko Party and the Popular Front are different factions of the same party - Maidan party.
Hence the lack of intrigue. After all, all the winning parties forged their victory through the exploitation of militaristic and anti-Russian rhetoric, promises to deepen neoliberal reforms in the economy and “bring the country closer to the EU.” Any deviation from these patterns is fraught with loss of ratings for Maidan politicians. That’s why, by the way, they spend so much time convicting each other of “working for Putin” and “betraying the ideals of the Maidan.”
An analysis of the already mentioned coalition agreement shows that the winners are not even going to not only implement, but even pretend to fulfill at least some issues of interest to the south and east. And this is understandable. After all, the politicians elected by the votes of the West do not feel obliged to the East, which for the most part ignored the elections.
One should not expect any steps towards federalization from this parliament. Moreover, it can already be predicted that a lot of effort will be spent by deputies to approve the chimera of a “united country” in its “Galician” understanding.
Members of the de facto ruling coalition refused to make concessions to the east even at the level of symbolic details, denying the oldest parliamentary deputy Efim Zvyagilsky, elected from the Donetsk region, the right to single-handedly open the first parliamentary session and swear in deputies.
Although this right belongs to Zvyagilsky by law, and no one has repealed the law.
It, as always over the past year, was replaced by political expediency dictated by the winners. After all, we cannot allow the deputies of a “united Ukraine” to be sworn in by a Donetsk person. Even if he is XNUMX% loyal to the new government.
We cannot expect the new Verkhovna Rada to find a way out of the impasse in relations with Russia into which the post-Maidan government has driven our country. Moreover, judging by the statements of the coalition leaders, they are confident that they are doing everything right. And a comprehensive picture of the vector of politics in the “Russian direction” can be given by recent news headlines, like this: “In the Odessa region, work continues to shut down Russian TV channels.”
The demonstrative jihad declared by the coalition against Soviet symbols and Soviet propaganda will not help the rapprochement with Russia. This means that monuments to figures of our common history with Russians will continue to be destroyed, causing indignation among people in the east and giving reasons for more and more negative stories about Ukraine on Russian TV.
In terms of economics, it's the same. In the programs of the coalition parties, as well as in the coalition agreement itself, there are absolutely no clauses on support for those sectors of domestic industry that are losing Russian markets. Coalitionists do not see such a problem, unlike production workers. And the phrase Customs Union is not mentioned in the list of coalition tasks.
This means that enterprises in the southeast will continue to “squeeze” their northern neighbor out of the markets with complete indifference of the government created by the coalition.
Those who hope to get a breakthrough in European rapprochement in return should not relax either. Because from year to year, according to the declarations of the former opposition and the current government, the calls for a visa-free regime with the European Union will remain wishes of the communities.
The words and deeds of European officials and European diplomats clearly indicate this. Even our closest neighbors, the Poles, have tightened the visa regime for Ukrainians. And how exactly the current government is going to solve this problem, the coalition agreement does not say anything.
But what we will get from this parliament in abundance is “unpopular but necessary reforms for society” secured by IMF loans. And you shouldn’t be surprised that their list includes regular tariff increases, the affectionate word “optimization” in relation to the public sector, privatization of the remains of state property and other things, the need for which is somehow obvious to officials, but not at all obvious to society itself.
In a word, there are no changes in the new Rada.
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