Fabienne Kinzelmann, collaboration: Olha Petriv
Together against Putin. That was once in Ukraine. Four months after beginning of war unity in Kyiv crumbles, cross-party harmony in parliament is a thing of the past. At the heart of the trouble: the Ukraine summit on July 4th and 5th in Switzerland. The ruling party, Servants of the People, apparently wanted to exclude the opposition from participating. This is shown by Blick research.
“Zelensky’s party only wanted to send its own deputies to Lugano,” a politician from the Verkhovna Rada, the Ukrainian parliament, told Blick. That only came out about two weeks ago, when the delegation was to be confirmed in a cross-party committee. “We only found out about it when we saw the list,” says another member of parliament.
Finally, there was an uproar. The Foreign Affairs Committee argued until the governing party allowed four other parliamentary groups to send representatives.
21 Zelensky deputies – and only four others
Several MPs confirm the incident. They wish to remain anonymous for fear of being sanctioned by the ruling party and banned from future trips.
Blick also has the list of participating Ukrainian MPs at the “Ukraine Recovery Conference” (URC2022), which is taking place in Lugano TI.
That’s what the Ukraine summit in Lugano is all about
Switzerland hosts the annual reform conference for Ukraine. Because of the war, the July 4-5 meeting in Lugano was renamed the Ukraine Recovery Conference. Among others, EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen will take part. A total of around 40 states and 20 international organizations have been invited. According to a Forbes report, Ukraine is planning to present a “Marshall Plan” for reconstruction.
Switzerland hosts the annual reform conference for Ukraine. Because of the war, the July 4-5 meeting in Lugano was renamed the Ukraine Recovery Conference. Among others, EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen will take part. A total of around 40 states and 20 international organizations have been invited. According to a Forbes report, Ukraine is planning to present a “Marshall Plan” for reconstruction.
In addition to 21 MPs from Selenski’s Servants of the People party, one MP each from the European Solidarity, Holos and Fatherland parliamentary groups are allowed to travel to Switzerland. In addition, someone from the For the Future party, which supports the ruling party in Parliament, can come.
The government faction is sending more than seven times as many MPs to Lugano as the three other approved factions – even if, including two support parties in parliament, it only has four times as many representatives.
Ex-President Poroshenko could not attend NATO meetings
The opposition is mighty angry. She sees a pattern in the process. After several “successful journeys together” in the first two months of the war, Selenski’s deputies would increasingly exclude their counterparts.
This is also evidenced by an incident involving Ukraine’s ex-president Petro Poroshenko (56), who was apparently stopped at the border on May 28 on his way to a NATO meeting in Lithuania. The former head of state, who now sits in parliament for the pro-European European Solidarity party he founded, then accused the government of breaching its word. After Putin’s invasion, pro-Russian forces were banned from parliament, but the other parties agreed on a “political truce” – a tacit agreement to set aside domestic political differences in the common fight against the enemy.
Opposition accuses Selenski of power games
The opposition members of parliament feel marginalized. They accuse Zelensky and his party of using the war situation disproportionately to expand their own power.
According to the impression of a member of parliament with whom Blick spoke, the strategy also affects the television program that has been controlled by the government since the beginning of the war: “MPs who are not from the governing party are no longer represented in the most important source of public information. Anyone who tunes in has the impression that there is only the President and his staff and his party fighting for Ukraine and wanting to save the country.”
Is that what the President wants? “Oh yes,” says the politician, “he wants it that way.”
MPs: “No one wants to change ‘Team Ukraine'”
The ruling party disagrees. “The delegation list for Lugano is balanced and we have great cooperation with the opposition during this challenging time,” says Maria Mezentseva (32), MP from Diener des Volkes and deputy chair of the Committee for EU Integration, to Blick. For example, the parliamentarians exchanged cross-party contacts with foreign media.
Mezentseva emphasizes that she herself has taken part in many cross-party trips. “We always pay attention to the mix. We are perceived as ‘Team Ukraine’ and nobody wants to change that. But we are the largest party, so of course we send more MPs.”
Party spokeswoman Yulia Paliychuk (35) announced that the participants were selected purely “according to technical aspects”. “I want to remind all of us that now is definitely not the time for political tourism or any unfounded trips abroad.” The selected MEPs are already involved in relevant projects, have sufficient skills in this area or have previously worked in relevant working groups or interparliamentary groups.
However, the opposition also criticizes this because Selenski’s party, which was only founded in 2018, consists primarily of political newcomers. “Lugano is about Ukraine’s economy and reconstruction, not party politics. It needs expertise in the areas that we need to rebuild, »says a long-standing member of parliament. She praises servants of the people for their enthusiasm at the beginning of the war and their “fantastic communication”. But the deputy doubts that the members of Zelensky’s party are experienced enough for the next phase.
Lugano summit “crucial” for Ukraine’s future
“You were great in the first month or two of the war. But we must now simultaneously defeat the Russians and save the country from economic collapse. The economy has to run, the social systems have to work, and we have to rebuild whole areas. If we don’t do it well and fast enough, people won’t come back and we’ll lose a large part of the population who will remain settled in other countries,” says the politician, who herself has held several senior positions in ministries and public offices.
She and other MPs also fear that Lugano is all about making quick money. They criticize the renaming of the conference organized by Switzerland from “Reform Conference” to “Recovery Conference”. «It seems that the reform agenda no longer plays a role. We need them as the backbone for reconstruction,” explains a politician who is committed to rapprochement with the EU. Another says: «We are winning this war 100 percent. But what comes after that worries me.”
The Ukraine summit in Lugano is crucial to bring the country forward not only economically, but also socially and politically. But the opposition experts still have little information about the important international meeting. This is being prepared by the government.
And they would no longer be interested in working together.
That’s how Ukrainian politics works
Along with President Volodymyr Zelensky (44) and his government, which is headed by a prime minister, the unicameral Verkhovna Rada parliament is the heart of Ukrainian democracy. Zelenskiy’s liberal-business and pro-European party Servant of the People (Ukrainian: Sluha narodu) won the majority in the 2019 parliamentary elections just a year after it was founded and has 240 of the 450 MPs. The most important democratic opposition parties are the European Solidarity led by ex-President Petro Poroshenko (56), the comparatively young and progressive Holos party and the Fatherland party founded by former Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko (61).
Along with President Volodymyr Zelensky (44) and his government, which is headed by a prime minister, the unicameral Verkhovna Rada parliament is the heart of Ukrainian democracy. Zelenskiy’s liberal-business and pro-European party Servant of the People (Ukrainian: Sluha narodu) won the majority in the 2019 parliamentary elections just a year after it was founded and has 240 of the 450 MPs. The most important democratic opposition parties are the European Solidarity led by ex-President Petro Poroshenko (56), the comparatively young and progressive Holos party and the Fatherland party founded by former Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko (61).