Hanna Hopko, 37, independent lawmaker who heads the parliament’s foreign affairs committee, on June 20, wrote on Facebook that she won’t run in the upcoming snap parliamentary elections, scheduled for July 21.
Hopko became a lawmaker in 2014, when she led the Samopomich party list in the snap parliamentary elections. The party gained 11 percent and came third, receiving a total of 33 seats in parliament.
Hopko was dismissed from the party and its faction in parliament on Aug. 31, 2015 following her support of constitutional amendments on decentralization, a law which caused substantial public upheaval and didn’t pass the parliamentary hearing.
During her time in parliament, Hopko was a prominent advocate for imposing and maintaining sanctions against Russia, as well as one of the initiators and main advocates of the language law, which took force on April 15.
Prior to becoming a lawmaker, Hopko was an activist during the EuroMaidan Revolution that drove President Viktor Yanukovych from power in 2014.
She was also an activist and co-founder of the Reanimation Package of Reforms, a coalition of non-government organizations promoting reforms in Ukraine, as well as a public health advocate who successfully championed public policy changes that decreased smoking in Ukraine.
