Petro Poroshenko
This year, Ukraine has experienced many upheavals, including two early election campaigns. Traditionally, during this period, citizens were bombarded with hundreds of promises from various politicians, most of them deliberately populist. In any case, every voter at each election, almost like New Year's Eve, hoped for a miracle: they expected certain changes and the fulfillment of at least one of the promises. The most high-profile of these, undoubtedly, were made by politicians vying for the top positions in power.
Petro Poroshenko's election campaign, which earned the trust of more than half of Ukrainians in the first round, was quite promising. The future president didn't mince words.
"Glavkom" analyzed what promises presidential candidate Petro Poroshenko made that were left out of his presidency.
Money and the New Maidan
Perhaps one of the most memorable of the president's unfulfilled promises is the sale of his own business. During the election campaign, Poroshenko promised that, as an honest politician, he would sell all his companies, retaining only his own media outlet, Channel 5. "If I'm elected, I will sell Roshen. As President of Ukraine, I want and will care only about the well-being of the country," Poroshenko assured in an interview with the German publication Bild. He repeated this promise during his inauguration: "Immediately after this, I will sign a contract with a company that will begin searching for investors," the president said. However, over time, his rhetoric has changed. It turns out that only one of the president's corporations—Roshen—is valued at a price that is unaffordable for anyone, while the company's annual turnover is $1,2 billion. Therefore, getting rid of it during the economic crisis is not so easy. The same problem arises when selling other assets.
However, many are concerned not only about business ownership but also about the conditions for Roshen's existence in Russia. In an interview with Glavkom, prominent dissident Levko Lukyanenko even predicted a new Maidan revolution for the president if he fails to fulfill his promise to get rid of the business.
Power and centralization
In his election platform, Petro Poroshenko promised not to assume more authority than the Ukrainian people had entrusted to him. Furthermore, the president declared that he would share power—transitioning from strict centralization to decentralization with corresponding constitutional amendments this year. Both promises were broken. Not only were no constitutional amendments made by the end of 2014, but the Venice Commission also raised a number of concerns regarding the presidential version of the new Basic Law. The main ones concern the draft's proposal for the president to appoint his representatives to local governments to exercise strict control over the functioning of local governments. This approach has drawn criticism from experts, who believe it will lead to a situation where a single presidential appointee will be able to block the decisions of elected local governments. Thus, the effectiveness of decentralization is reduced to zero.
War and its price
"The anti-terrorist operation cannot and will not last two or three months. It must and will last only hours..."—that's what Petro Poroshenko believed on the eve of the elections. This promise initially sounded far-fetched, but the president didn't stop there, and the people readily believed him. Petro Poroshenko also promised to raise the pay of ATO soldiers, and the figure was more than ambitious—1,000 hryvnias per day, starting the second day after the elections, on May 26. Furthermore, the president announced that the soldiers' lives would be insured for 1 million hryvnias.
Currently, the salaries of Ukrainian soldiers range from 3 to 8 hryvnias, but only per month. As for the soldiers' lives, it is estimated at 500 non-taxable minimums. Currently, this amount does not exceed 609 hryvnias. Not to mention the bureaucratic process of obtaining a certificate confirming that a person actually fought and died in battle is quite complex, and proving anything about those who died at the front before the fall and the adoption of the relevant legislation is virtually impossible.
Peace and terrorists
The president was also generous with his peace promises. Three bold statements were made: end the conflict with Russia within three months, not negotiate with terrorists, and not allow Ukrainians to die. Currently, each of these promises has been completely dashed. The three-month deadline for ending the conflict expired at the end of August, and even during the "ceasefire," news of casualties on the Ukrainian side continued to pour in. And the so-called peace talks involved a country that methodically supplies weapons and other support to terrorists in the east. The Ministry of Justice recently even announced its intention to appeal to the International Court of Justice to have Russia declared a state sponsor of terrorism.
Not such elections
When running for president, Petro Poroshenko promised a complete overhaul of the government: "I will make every effort within my constitutional authority to ensure that early parliamentary elections are held by the end of 2014 using a proportional system and open lists." This promise was partially fulfilled—the elections took place. However, they were far from proportional. The controversial single-member constituency system was never abolished, in part at the insistence of Petro Poroshenko himself, and no one was in any hurry to address the issue of open lists. Given the president's ratings, his team placed considerable emphasis on single-member constituencies, hoping to secure as many seats as possible under the Poroshenko Bloc brand. But it was the single-member constituency system that allowed far from new faces, who had no desire to "live in a new way," to enter parliament.
Quota principle
Along with the country's reset and elections, Petro Poroshenko promised to transition to fundamentally new political practices. For example, he promised that the new government would abandon the practice of distributing positions in the Cabinet of Ministers and parliamentary committees based on quotas. In the post-Maidan period, the idea of a professional, technocratic government became entrenched in public discourse. All popular politicians and their parties adopted these words. Moreover, according to Ihora Kononenko, deputy head of the Poroshenko Bloc faction and a friend of the president, the government was not formed based on quotas. However, many appointments and public discontent indicate something quite different.
Political competition
His extensive political experience and desire to "live in a new way" prompted the president's next promise: to submit a bill on parliamentary opposition to the Verkhovna Rada. This was supposed to be one of his first steps in his new position. However, no bill was ever drafted. Moreover, the topic of legislative guarantees for the opposition is absent even from public discourse. Meanwhile, a bill on parliamentary opposition, voted on at the suggestion of the remaining Party of Regions and tailored to their needs, awaits its fate in parliament.
Defense
The President promised to present a defense sector reform plan by the end of the year. This promise was made in early October. The corresponding plan was supposed to be submitted to parliament by the end of this year. Currently, no such plan is even close to being submitted to the Verkhovna Rada.
Interestingly, the president assigned billionaire Yuriy Kosyuk a senior position in the Presidential Administration, currently responsible for the highest priority area—defense and the military. After six months on the job, the "chicken king" Kosyuk has clearly failed to deliver. Rumors that he had been asking for his resignation for some time surfaced as early as early fall, but the presidential decree to that effect was only issued in late November. According to the official version, the billionaire couldn't handle the hectic schedule of his new, and especially low-paying, job.
A holiday instead of punishment
Punishing those responsible for the Maidan shooting is another promise the new government has failed to fulfill. During Freedom Day, which the president reinstated as a public holiday, relatives of the Heavenly Hundred heroes voiced their dissatisfaction with the guarantor: the murders remain unsolved, and those who died for freedom at that time have not yet been awarded the title of Hero of Ukraine. Despite the fact that more than a year has passed since the first tragic event of the revolution—the student beatings—not a single high-ranking official has been punished, nor has the Prosecutor General's Office directly named them. For example, some close associates of the fugitive president are already planning to return to Ukraine and are preparing to have personal sanctions lifted, allowing them to travel freely throughout Europe. And all this is simply because Ukraine itself has failed to prove the guilt of all these people. One final fact: the prosecutor's office recently found no criminal offense in one of Oleksandr Yanukovych's schemes. The slow pace of the investigation has already raised concerns among Western partners and international human rights organizations. The president also stated his dissatisfaction with the pace of the investigation, but no decisive progress has been made.
Window to Europe
The launch of visa-free travel with the EU is another unfulfilled dream for Poroshenko and many Ukrainians. "We have already completed the first stage of the visa-free regime and will very quickly complete the second, so that, starting January 1, 2015, Ukrainian citizens will be able to travel visa-free throughout Europe," the president said recently. Of course, such opportunities will not open up for Ukrainians starting early next year.
But if the borders with Europe cannot be opened for entirely objective reasons – war, the lack of demarcation of the border with Russia – then the promise to increase social benefits in a robbed country with a depleted treasury and gold and foreign exchange reserves was initially an expression of pure populism.
Protecting Crimeans
"I place special emphasis on the strict observance of the rights of all national minorities. Particular attention should be paid to the protection of Ukrainians in Crimea and Crimean Tatars as the indigenous people of Crimea," the president's platform states. Soon after the occupation, it became clear that there was no leverage over what was happening on the peninsula, neither politically nor economically, nor in terms of protecting human rights. The only thing Ukraine could do was block access to resources and restrict transportation.
Furthermore, the Ukrainian authorities promised to appeal to international courts and the UN to protect the rights of Crimean residents, but so far there is no indication that these intentions have been fulfilled. The president himself mostly mentions Crimea in passing. No decisive steps have been taken in this direction. Moreover, there is no negotiation process. The war in Donbas has relegated Crimea to the background.
Immediate lustration
Immediate lustration of the judiciary, law enforcement, tax, and customs authorities, and, at the same time, ensuring public oversight of the appointment and performance of judges. Of course, the legislative framework for such a process may still be refined, but conclusions regarding such grandiose promises can already be drawn. Indeed, the law on the cleansing of power was adopted with difficulty, under public pressure and the cries of picketers outside parliament. This was followed by a series of high-profile dismissals and the publication of lists of those lustrated, whose names are not particularly well-known. Meanwhile, the process of challenging the lustration decisions has begun. Prosecutors were the first to make their mark on this matter, and some have already secured the support of the courts.
Anna Cherevko, "Glavcom"
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