In a spa resort in the foothills of the Carpathian Mountains, the 250 novices who form Volodymyr Zelensky’s parliamentary troops mustered for a team-building boot camp. But instead of a pampering, they found themselves on the receiving end of an unexpected wake-up call: “You’re nobodies,” a veteran political adviser told them.
2019 Parliamentary Election
Verkhovna Rada
Financial Times: Boot-camp shakes Ukraine’s parliamentary ‘nobodies’
Newly elected lawmakers from the Servant of the People party of President Volodymyr Zelensky start their one-week training course in legislation and economics in Truskavets on July 29, 2019. None of the party's 254 lawmakers have been in parliament before, and most are new to politics. As the new parliament session approaches in early September, the party leadership faces a challenge of making this diverse group work together.