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Automatically translated version. May contain inaccuracies compared to the original.
📰 The continuation of The Economist's article about sabotage of reforms in Ukraine.
Part two:
Representatives of the government camp, interested in preserving the status quo, skillfully use arguments in favor of lenient attitudes toward Ukraine: reforms are allegedly unconstitutional, violate sovereignty, are impossible during wartime, cost too much, or have no chance of passing the parliament.
“We call this anti-reform bingo with delusions.”
Mr. Zelensky has lost his majority in parliament and is now forced to bargain with the conservatives (WHAT??!!! 🤯) over each bill separately. But when he really wants to, he can assemble a majority — as happened during the government reshuffles last month.
A significant portion of the opposition to accelerating reforms comes from within the Office of the President itself. Hoping to shame the government and force it to act, a group of reform-minded deputies submitted four of their own bills.
However Taras Kachka, who is stepping down as minister of European integration, laughs at such expectations and says that drafting a new code of laws is not the same as placing an order at McDonald’s. He calls Mr. Zhernovakov a “Don Quixote.”
For the EU it is not easy to openly criticize Ukraine. According to a spokeswoman for the European Commission, pressure is being exerted behind closed doors. Yet such diplomatic restraint may lead to no real progress.
As one Ukrainian deputy says, the government has the notion that the criteria set “can be revised or even removed from the agenda.”
Agreeing to the flawed asset declaration law for judges, the EU “opened Pandora’s box. This will now happen with every sensitive bill.” Parliament may decide that it will also get away with passing a hollow reform to the infamous and politicized DBR.
Polls still show that the vast majority of Ukrainians want to join the EU and urge foreign allies to continue pressuring the leadership to enact changes. But while the war rages, there is no prospect of elections, so ordinary citizens have little opportunity to influence the government.
True, the dismissal by Mr. Zelensky of the popular reformer Mykhailo Fedorov from the defense minister post in mid-July sparked massive protests, including a multi-thousand-strong march through central Kyiv 31 in July. Public outrage convinced the President to replace Fedorov’s principal rival — Oleksandr Syrskyi — in the position of commander-in-chief.
Nevertheless, procedural nuances in appointing judges are unlikely to provoke people to take to the streets in the same way.
Ordinary Ukrainians are more worried about the next Russian missile strike, says 27-year-old political analyst Ihor Lachenkov, whose Telegram channel has more than 1,5 million followers.
“People are tired; they are spending 80% of their income on food. They are not very interested in how reforms are advancing.”
That is why, in Mr. Zhernaakov’s view, Europe must use its entire influence:
“The only way to push the process forward is to say: ‘This is what needs to be done,’ and then hold firm to that position.”
