Petro Poroshenko Returns to Work

Petro Poroshenko returns to work

Petro Poroshenko is looking for a head of the presidential administration. As a businessman, in the CEO role he wants someone smart but also meticulous in carrying out tasks, who will not question Poroshenko’s correctness but who can complement his work capacity with systematization and perfectionism. In Ukrainian realities, the head of the presidential administration has to say goodbye to their own political career. There is no example in history when this position increased one’s rating or simply popular love. This person is doomed to take on public negativity, contrasting with the “good president.” By established tradition, everything good that is done will be associated with the head of state, and everything bad — with the intrigues of the head of his office.

The only person who emerged more or less unscathed from the ruins was Oleg Rybachuk, who at the same time ended his political career and focused on civic activity.

As of Friday the name of Poroshenko’s head of administration had not been announced.

In a conversation with Ukrayinska Pravda, former parliamentary speaker Volodymyr Lytvyn, who is close to Poroshenko, named five surnames of contenders for this post, which he himself had to occupy at the turn of the 2000 years.

"I heard that Volodymyr Hroisman, Vitaliy Kovalchuk, Yuriy Lutsenko, Roman Bezsmertnyi and Oleksandr Dombrovsky are being discussed. But the one to choose should be someone who will constitute an organic whole with Petro Poroshenko," Lytvyn advised.

In light of Lytvyn’s recommendations, the least likely is Vitaliy Kovalchuk, who, although he was Poroshenko’s campaign chief, represents a different political force — UDAR — and therefore has a conflict of interest.

Furthermore, Kovalchuk has recently been named too often as an agent of influence for Dmytro Firtash within Vitali Klitschko’s team, and he is also accused of backroom appointments of people across the power vertical, not shying away from politically low-impact but cash-heavy positions such as the State Agro-Industrial Inspection.

Most often in the corridors, when potential heads of Poroshenko’s administration are discussed, the surname Volodymyr Hroisman is mentioned — the former mayor of Vinnytsia, which is the political homeland of the new president.

But, according to Ukrayinska Pravda, Hroisman himself is not eager to go into the administration, understanding the risks of losing his political future. As vice prime minister he is happy to handle housing and communal services issues and to implement Vinnytsia’s advanced practices on a nationwide scale. Success in these endeavors could give Hroisman’s political career a boost on a national level. Ukrayinska Pravda contacted Hroisman, but he declined to comment on the possibility of working in the presidential administration.

Former governor of Vinnytsia region Oleksandr Dombrovsky made the candidate list more as someone who has long been part of Poroshenko’s team and understands how power functions at the local level. Regional and district administrations, under the new-old Constitution, remain subordinate to the president.

Poroshenko and Hroisman (right). Photo "Welcome to Vinnytsya"

Roman Bezsmertnyi has extensive experience working in the administrations of Presidents Kuchma and Yushchenko, but that very fact could play a cruel trick on him — like Poroshenko, he knows too many political ins and outs and was connected to too many people throughout his political life.

Petro Poroshenko has other plans for Yuriy Lutsenko. He is the main contender for the position of leader of the presidential party "Solidarity." The condition Lutsenko stated to Poroshenko when discussing these prospects is retaining for Lutsenko the right to veto odious figures who will surely want to join this project.

Poroshenko himself, upon becoming president, will not have the right to join any party. Therefore he needs a person who is organically comfortable for him, who at the same time can become the list leader in parliamentary elections.

Besides the five surnames mentioned by Lytvyn, Ukrayinska Pravda heard about another person who has a chance to move to Bankova. The name is somewhat unexpected for domestic politics. But given Poroshenko’s business habit of taking unconventional steps, this appointment does not seem that improbable.

It is about Borys Lozhkin — the former head and co-owner of the Ukrainian Media Holding.

Lozhkin was Poroshenko’s business partner when they together bought KP-Media (the magazine and site Korrespondent, the portal Bigmir) from American entrepreneur Jed Sunden.

In addition, Poroshenko handed his radio stations to Lozhkin to manage. And Lozhkin’s sale of media assets to Serhiy Kurchenko at an incredibly inflated price last summer is considered one of the most successful deals on the market, which could not but have pleased Poroshenko as one of the group’s co-owners.

A drawback for Lozhkin may be his lack of experience in public service, but given the low quality of the government apparatus, this could conversely become his strong suit. Lozhkin himself refused to comment to Ukrayinska Pravda on his possible appointment to the presidential administration.

Poroshenko and Lozhkin. Photo, Focus magazine

PETRO POROSHENKO’S POLITICAL SUPERSTRUCTURE

Besides appointing the head of his administration and reconfiguring the conservative machine for the challenges of the times, Poroshenko needs to develop his political project. His campaign promise was to hold early parliamentary elections — and the sooner he implements this, the better Poroshenko’s party will do.

Petro Poroshenko’s political party is called "Solidarity," although this is known to a small number of politically active citizens. But when the party "Solidarity, leader Petro Poroshenko" is included on a sociological survey questionnaire, it gets one of the highest results. In May of 2014 this brand rose to first place in popularity with a rating of 16,8%.

In reality, despite Poroshenko already being in politics for 16 years, he has no party — neither "Solidarity" nor any other. There is only a file of documents with that name on the cover sheet and a number of close people who sit on the governing bodies of a phantom political structure.

Poroshenko’s political career began in 1998, when he ran for parliament simultaneously on the SDPU(o) list and in a single-mandate district in Vinnytsia region.

Then Poroshenko won the district, outpacing local businessman Volodymyr Skomarovsky by only 56 votes; after the Orange Revolution Skomarovsky was lobbied into the post of head of the State Customs Service.

In the third convocation parliament, Poroshenko joined the SDPU(o) faction and became a member of the party’s political council, but later his paths diverged from Medvedchuk and Surkis.

A few deputies oriented toward Poroshenko created the "Solidarity" group — together with defectors from Hromada and members of the Peasant Party, which ran in the parliamentary elections of 1998 on Oleksandr Moroz’s ticket. It is rumored that the Peasants’ move from the hated Kuchma ally Moroz to Poroshenko was one of the ideas of the presidential administration, then headed by Poroshenko’s comrade Volodymyr Lytvyn.

Becoming the leader of the "Solidarity" deputy group, Poroshenko began thinking about the political legalization of his project.

The first party Poroshenko headed was called the Party of Solidarity of Ukraine. It was by this party that he became one of the founders of the Party of Regions.

The Party of Regions was formed in November of 2000 by merging five parties — besides Poroshenko, their projects were donated by Chernovetsky, Rybak, Landyk and the Pensioners’ Party. Poroshenko received the position of deputy head of the Party of Regions.

But things did not work out with the Regions for Poroshenko. In 2001 he demanded to become a co-founder of the Our Ukraine bloc and to head its headquarters. To secure a quota for his deputies, Poroshenko had to be among the founders with his party. He could not withdraw the Party of Solidarity from the Party of Regions — so he tried to quickly head an existing party that had been secretly founded on his behalf. It had a similar name — the party "Solidarity."

Back then Poroshenko was much less experienced and influential — and the plan did not succeed on the first try. In October of 2001 a congress of "Solidarity" was held to elect Poroshenko as leader, but it ended in his defeat.

Before the vote on his candidacy, 10 delegations left the assembly, breaking the quorum. They explained this by saying that Poroshenko could not be the leader of "Solidarity" because he was still a member of the Party of Regions. Poroshenko said that literally the day before the congress he had submitted a letter of resignation to the Regions’ leader Azarov and had relinquished his powers as deputy head of the Party of Regions. But the delegates were immovable — Poroshenko’s resignation from the Party of Regions had to be considered by the branch where he was registered within 14 days.

In the end, Poroshenko headed "Solidarity" only the following month, in November of 2001. Informed people recall that Vitaliy Hayduk was behind this intrigue. But ultimately the party became a full co-founder of "Our Ukraine" and obtained its quota on the electoral list.

After the Orange Revolution the fixed idea of creating a single party based on "Our Ukraine" was born. In 2005 Poroshenko pledged to dissolve "Solidarity," since he was one of the founders of the unified party. But Yushchenko’s project failed, and although Poroshenko formally left the post in "Solidarity," he kept the statutory documents.

In 2013 the party "Solidarity" was resurrected from oblivion.

Poroshenko did not dare to head it himself — the leader became Poroshenko’s media manager, deputy Yuriy Stets, who then joined the political council of "Batkivshchyna" on the "Solidarity" quota.

But in October of 2013, following a lawsuit by the Ministry of Justice, a court hearing ordered the liquidation of the party "Solidarity" as one that for 10 years had not nominated its candidates for president or for parliament — which is grounds for annulment of a registration certificate under the law "On Political Parties." On 30 December of 2013 the party "Solidarity" was struck from the state register.

Now Poroshenko’s circle calls this decision a political reprisal by Yanukovych against a rival, although in reality the process of annulling "Solidarity" began when Poroshenko’s rating was minimal.

Preparations for the liquidation of "Solidarity" began as early as March of 2013 when the Central Election Commission handed the Ministry of Justice evidence that "Solidarity" had not participated in elections for ten years. More likely it was the government’s revenge for Poroshenko’s refusal after the parliamentary elections of 2012 to serve as minister of economy under Yanukovych.

Poroshenko and the future leader of his party Yuriy Lutsenko? Photo from Lutsenko’s Facebook

After the party registration certificate for "Solidarity" was annulled by court decision on 16 October of 2013, Poroshenko could have appealed in the appellate court. But instead of wasting time, he took a different route — he bought a new party and renamed it to the needed brand.

In 2014 the next reincarnation of "Solidarity" occurred. To create his fifth party, Poroshenko used the documents of a party with the odd name "National Alliance of Freedom and Ukrainian Patriotism 'NASHCHUP'" which was renamed to the All-Ukrainian Union "Solidarity."

Trusted associates of Poroshenko were included in the governing bodies — his longtime allies Yuriy Stets, who became party head, Iryna Fryz, Vladyslav Synyagovskyi, Serhiy Berezenko, Volodymyr Fedorchuk (ironically, his father Yaroslav Fedorchuk has long been the chief organizer in the rival party "Batkivshchyna").

"All-Ukrainian Union 'Solidarity'" is a phantom party; it has no office you can visit and register at, and its registered address is one of Poroshenko’s corporate premises on Rybalskyi Island.

Besides registration troubles, Petro Poroshenko faces a mismatch between the party’s name and its composition. He has long been attached to the name "Solidarity," which is a typical brand of labor and socialist parties. This goes back to the American workers’ anthem "Solidarity Forever," written in 1915, and the rise of the "Solidarity" movement at the Gdańsk shipyard, which ultimately fixed the word with left-wing ideology.

At the same time Poroshenko himself is a politician of the opposite conservative type, representing big capital and naming Ronald Reagan and Margaret Thatcher as his idols.

But such details as the mismatch between the party’s name and its composition have never bothered the domestic voter. Nor will they matter now, although in a civilized society party ideology is a subject of constant public attention.

Petro Poroshenko has a chance to change Ukraine. But for that he must change himself.

http://www.pravda.com.ua