Look Who's Here: What You Need to Know About Groysman's Cabinet

Look Who's Here: What You Need to Know About Groysman's Cabinet

Bitter coalition bargaining ended with the formation of a government that still includes members of Arseniy Yatsenyuk’s party, many associates of Volodymyr Groysman, and no hastily naturalized foreigners in the rank of ministers. 257 votes for the new head of government — the voting result that reflected Volodymyr Groysman’s high communication skills.

The new prime minister turned out to be, perhaps for the first time in many years, a head of government who put considerable effort into securing approval for his associates in key positions. Of course, behind-the-scenes struggles for posts existed before, but the prime ministerial candidate did not give up the prospect of leading the Cabinet, as happened with Groysman a few days earlier. As a result, the government will include Volodymyr Kistion as vice prime minister for ATO and the occupied territories, Andriy Reva as head of the Ministry of Social Policy, and Oleksandr Saienko as Minister of the Cabinet of Ministers. I note that the appearance of a Ministry for Temporarily Occupied Territories headed by Vadym Chernysh in the government implies substantive changes in state policy on Donbas and Crimea.

The “rehabilitation” of Yatsenyuk’s government by canceling the resolution that had declared its work unsatisfactory actually flatters Arseniy Petrovych’s pride more than it helps restore his rating positions.

Against the general informational background, this parliamentary decision is unlikely to be noticeable, and it will be difficult to “sell” to fellow citizens. Yatsenyuk will have to make a lot of effort to effectively carry out tasks that go beyond prime ministerial powers. The guarantee of his calm is the retention of Arsen Avakov (Interior Ministry) and Pavlo Petrenko (Ministry of Justice) in key positions in the Cabinet.

I will also note that representatives of the presidential quota retained their positions: Pavlo Klimkin (Foreign Ministry) and Stepan Poltorak (Ministry of Defense). Although the number of vice prime ministers in the new government has already been criticized, only the actual work of the Cabinet of Ministers can answer that question.

The political expediency of this fact is evidenced by the presence of Vyacheslav Kyrylenko in the vice prime minister role, a figure toward whom cultural actors have accumulated many questions. The first vice prime minister and minister of economic development became Stepan Kubiv, the former head of the NBU and the president’s representative in the Verkhovna Rada. Pavlo Rozenko was promoted to vice prime minister, and Hennadiy Zubko retained his vice prime minister portfolio.

On the other hand, the process of preliminary agreeing on candidates allows one to assume that politicians who agreed to work in the executive branch understand that neither an easy ride nor a blitzkrieg of reforms can be expected. Rather, the prime minister and his subordinates will have to constantly work on forming situational majorities to support their initiatives. Under such conditions, after the Revolution of Dignity the Cabinet of Ministers practically did not function, and this prospect is a serious challenge for Groysman’s team. Among the newcomers to the government are many well-known figures.

For example, the offices of the heads of the relevant parliamentary committees were replaced by ministers Taras Kutovyi (Ministry of Agrarian Policy and Food) and Liliya Hrynivych (Ministry of Education and Science). Deputy head of the Presidential Administration Oleksandr Danyliuk became finance minister; Volodymyr Omelyan, from acting minister, grew into the full head of the Ministry of Infrastructure. As expected, information policy minister Yuriy Stets kept his seat.

The minister of fuel, energy and coal industry, Ihor Nasalyk, risks generating scandals around himself; a gas industry specialist from 90-s. Ihor Zhdanov changed his party affiliation to become minister of youth and sports. The “voice of Maidan,” Yevhen Nyshchuk, will again be heard in the government. Another important detail: the new Cabinet will not include freshly minted Ukrainian citizens who until recently held passports of other countries. On the one hand, this testifies to the failure of Borys Lozhkin’s long-standing plan to involve “branded reformers,” as reflected in the results of Yatsenyuk’s government’s work; on the other, people who know Ukrainian realities firsthand will be working. The approval of the government program only on the third attempt, which gives the Cabinet of Ministers a one-year immunity from dismissal, indicates that it will not be easy for them; they will have to maneuver a lot and show results understandable to ordinary citizens. Groysman has already promised to make his government intolerant of corruption and to bring order to customs and the fiscal service.

Yevhen Magda, political expert, specially for ONLINE.UA