It’s Amateur Hour in Ukraine, and That’s Good
Now that an early election has been confirmed, President Volodymyr Zelensky is about to take over the parliament with an army of novices.
Volodymyr Zelenskiy is no joke.
Photographer: Brendan Hoffman/Getty Images
Ukraine’s constitutional court has ruled that President Volodymyr Zelenskiy’s decision to disband the parliament and call an early election for July was legal. As a result, Zelensky appears about to win de facto control of the parliament, the way another political novice, French President Emmanuel Macron, did in 2017.
That’s likely to mean a revolution in Ukrainian politics not seen since the country gained independence in 1991 -- for the political class, bigger even than the upheavals of 2004 and 2014. Most of the people likely to comprise the ruling political group or coalition in parliament have little or no political experience, though some of them are bright and highly motivated. With them, Zelenskiy gets a rare opportunity to drain Kiev’s post-Soviet swamp – but he’s given little indication so far of what he’s actually going to do with all that power.