Last week, the Ukrainian parliament voted to destroy two key anti-corruption institutions. Outrage followed, and now lawmakers have been forced to cut short their summer holidays and return to Kyiv to reverse the law. More than a thousand demonstrators shouted ‘Shame!’ as the MPs drove past them to the Verkhovna Rada.
In two rapid back-to-back readings, 331 lawmakers voted to restore the independence of Ukraine’s anti-corruption agency, Nabu, and the office of the anti-corruption prosecutor, Sapo. Zelensky signed it immediately. The reputational damage, though, was irreversible. The circus that followed the vote only deepened public disgust toward the politicians they no longer want to represent them.
For the first time since Russia’s full-scale invasion, today’s proceedings were broadcast live for the whole nation to see. Live coverage from the Verkhovna Rada had been banned on ‘security grounds’ since 24 February 2022, but Ukraine’s civil society believed the government was trying to restrict citizens’ right to information under the guise of ensuring national security, especially considering that opposition MPs have been livestreaming sessions from their phones anyway. It was convenient for the government to keep the public eye focused on something else, but as national outrage peaked last week, parliament had no choice but to reverse this measure.
What Ukraine saw today was a parade of hypocrisy. One by one, lawmakers took to the podium to denounce the very bill they pressed the green button for last week. Two MPs broke into a fistfight. Oleksiy Goncharenko, of the European Solidarity party and one of the few lawmakers who opposed the controversial law, took the podium to lash out at Zelensky: ‘Forget about the second term. This is a stain no khaki blazer can cover. This is ze end,’ he shouted, referring to Zelensky’s nickname in Ukraine. ‘Save the country, not your friends!’, he continued. The investigations by Ukraine’s independent media have revealed that last week’s bill was designed in the president’s office to protect people in Zelensky’s close circle from corruption charges.
Zelensky’s U-turn has sparked a protest even in his own Servant of the People party. MP Dmytro Kostiuk announced he is quitting in protest, claiming he was pressured to vote for the bill last week. He is not alone. Many of Zelensky’s MPs, who have rubber-stamped the president’s bills, plan not to do so anymore. Their blind obedience to the president’s orders has cost them their credibility, and they won’t forget it when their votes are needed in the future.
Several opposition MPs, who had been blaming Zelensky for centralising power and turning the parliamentary-presidential republic into an autocracy, used the session to call for the parliament to reclaim its independence. Dmytro Razumkov, a former member of Zelensky’s party, asked his colleagues: ‘Aren’t you tired of eating shit in this hall and feeding it to the people?’. Yaroslav Zhelezniak, of the Holos party, urged lawmakers to stop being afraid to go against the president’s office. Iryna Herashchenko, of European Solidarity, said parliament had been reduced to a herd of ‘serfs instead of lawmakers’ and accused Zelensky of choosing to ‘lead corruption, not fight it.’
Outside, a crowd of young protesters who had survived one of Russia’s largest bombings last night erupted in cheers as the scandalous law was overturned. They weren’t calling for fresh elections, at least not yet. Most Ukrainians accept that holding a vote during wartime could do more harm than good to a country fighting for its survival. They rallied to defend their future from the disastrous decisions of a government they have been stuck with for six years. Today’s theatre inside the Verkhovna Rada revealed that while soldiers defend the country at the frontline, it’s up to civilians to stop the enemy within.
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