Week’s milestones. Festive Groysman, stable Parubiy, and Gontareva set to leave

Volodymyr Groysman was emphatically modest in marking his fisrt year in prime minister’s office. Rada Speaker Andriy Parubiy keeps repeating like a mantra the message that his parliament is stable and effective. Nadiia Savchenko decided to create a "Party of last resort." NBU chief Valeria Gontareva personally confirmed the rumors on her upcoming resignation.

Modesty continues to be a virtue of some public servants. For example, Volodymyr Groysman seems almost shy in his dragging with an annual report before the legislators who endorsed his appointment a year ago, at the same time eagerly communicating with the media. The prime minister seeks not to pull the blanket of authority too much and claims he has no presidential ambitions. Not the right season, as they say... Groysman prefers not to talk about the past, stating only the stabilization of the economy, but he is willing to discuss the future, describing the potential impact of changes he is proposing on the country’s economic growth.

Tactically, the head of the government is playing his best game at the moment, as the lack of people wishing to stand at the government helm plays into his hands. Economic growth has not yet become a stable feature in Ukraine, so many potential candidates for his post keep a tactical pause. Only Yulia Tymoshenko is showing an irrepressible desire to lead the Cabinet. Their long-standing row of personal verbal attacks does not surprise anyone anymore, while the current prime minister hints that there is enough evidence in government archives of Tymoshenko’s “achievements” during her tenure. Given the latest polls showing higher popularity of Batkivschsyna leader than that of the head of the executive branch, such tactic looks politically justified.

On the eve of a month-long pause in the plenary sessions, the legislators showed a quite constructive performance. Although they failed the bill "On the Constitutional Court", in which they saw the prospect of strengthening presidential influence, they managed to pass a bill on the electricity market. Unfortunately, the people’s servants also failed to amend the notorious "Savchenko law", which demonstrates their very distant idea of the actual harm that this normative act inflicts on society as too many criminals who were released from jail early due to this law have committed grave crimes, again.   

Meanwhile, the non-factional parliamentarian, Vladimir Putin’s former high-profile prisoner Nadiia Savchenko continues her experiments in the area of party creation. Behind closed doors, she transformed the NASTUP [Offensive] Party into the "Public Platform of Nadiia Savchenko," calling it "the party of last resort." While there is no clarity, how this political force will differ from some 350 other registered parties, Nadiia Savchenko vowed to inform the public in detail of all her initiatives. It should be noted that this is already her second political project over the past six months.

Meanwhile, another influential woman decided to leave her post. National Bank’s Governor Valeria Gontarev intends to resign after the May holidays. She said that she received threats from one of the Ukrainian oligarchs and said that the two others - Dmytro Firtash and Oleh Bakhmatiuk – owed a total of UAH 20 billion to the NBU. Gontareva's dismissal will certainly take place, although representatives of the parliamentary opposition will try to establish a temporary inquiry commission to investigate her work as the NBU head. Much more interesting is who will take over Gontareva’s post, as this person will have to win the support of the Rada’s majority. It can not be ruled out that this appointment will be perceived by political players as an important component of the big game around the approval of Volodymyr Groysman at a prime minister’s post.

Yevgeny Magda

UNIAN in Google News