Oleksiy Movchan looks so young, he could easily pass for a university student on a study tour to the parliament. But the green badge on his gray suit reads “Servant of the People.”
A 25-year-old former manager at public e-procurement system ProZorro, Movchan was elected as a lawmaker in a single-member district of the city of Kremenchuk in Poltava Oblast, defeating oligarch and political heavyweight Kostyantyn Zhevago.
“I want to achieve a functioning economy,” he tells the Kyiv Post when asked about his goals as a lawmaker. “We are a country with eternal great potential that for some reason has not been realized.”
Movchan is one of 424 members of the parliament that took the oath of office on Aug. 29, marking the beginning of a new political era for Ukraine.
Compared to previous legislatures, it is younger, more diverse, and less experienced. Eighty percent of its members are new to politics. They are farther from old-school Ukrainian politicking and closer to the Ukrainian public — in most cases, they were members of the public just months ago.
They carry on their shoulders the double burden of great hopes, which have been placed upon them by a public tired of old political elites and corruption, and of the same intractable problems Ukraine has struggled with for years, which they are expected to solve.
In his address to the lawmakers, President Volodymyr Zelensky, whose Servant of the People party now holds 247 seats, stressed this theme.
“You have everything you need to go down in history as the parliament that did the impossible, that made everything (previous) parliaments didn’t accomplish for the past 28 years a reality — the parliament without fights, no-shows, voting for absentees,” he said.
“Otherwise you will go down in history as the parliament that existed for just a year,” Zelensky continued. “This is our probation period. I already know that dismissing parliament isn’t so scary.”
Zelensky’s success as president largely depends on the parliament and the government that he forms after Ukrainian voters handed him full power. Regardless of the ultimate results, this experiment in governance is unprecedented in Ukraine’s history.
Young and old
The air in the parliament hall is filled with buzz and excitement. New lawmakers enthusiastically chat with reporters, pose for selfies, and talk about their big ambitions.
“One of my main goals is to defeat corruption, defeat the desire of public officials on all levels to take office in order to make money,” says Olga Vasilevska-Smagliuk, a former investigative journalist. “For this, I am working on a draft law on (creating) the state service of financial investigations that will investigate economic crimes.”
She is one of 88 women in this parliament — a historic record for Ukraine.
As a member of the foreign policy committee, Svyatoslav Yurash, the youngest lawmaker elected at the age of 23 with the Servant of the People, will work on reforming Ukraine’s diplomatic service and changing the ways his country interacts with Ukrainian diasporas.
“Because of how young this parliament is, we are trying to build a Ukraine where young people want to stay, where everyone wants to return, not flee,” he told the Kyiv Post.
Seasoned politicians, who now find themselves in the minority, also made it into parliament. They had some advice to offer their younger colleagues, many of whom could be their children or grandchildren.
Yuriy Boyko, leader of the second largest faction, the 43-member, pro-Russian Opposition Platform — For Life party, advised new lawmakers to learn from the past.
“Look back at the fate of the previous parliament and do not repeat their mistakes when parliament lived separately from the people, worked on its own political ambitions and ignored the needs of the people.”
Former President Petro Poroshenko returned to the parliament with his rebranded faction, European Solidarity, which holds 27 seats. He says his team will serve as a check on Servant of the People, should they lead the country in the wrong direction.
“The goal of our team is to move the country toward European and Euro-Atlantic integration,” he said. “If the ruling party crosses the red line, we will do everything to stop them and to protect the European future.”
Unlike them, 22-seat Batkivshchyna faction announced that it will side with the president’s party, although its hopes to coalesce with the majority were not heard.
“We will not go into opposition to the president and Servant of the People. We will work outside of the majority,” said Batkivshchyna’s long-time leader Yulia Tymoshenko.
Lesya Vasylenko, a member of the smallest faction, the 17-seat Voice, said her party will not take sides.
“We do not see ourselves in opposition. Rather, we see ourselves above the process,” she told the Kyiv Post. “When there are things to be criticized, we shall do it. When there are things being done well, we will support them.”
No delay
Normally, lawmakers would call it a day after their swearing-in. But the new parliament did not want to delay, and the official ceremony was followed by the first plenary session.
Day turned into evening, and voting continued into the night.
By midnight, the parliament selected its speaker, committees, the new Cabinet of Ministers, and the new prosecutor general.
Oleksandr Korniyenko, a lawmaker from Servant of the People, looked weary as he answered journalists’ questions about dozens of laws his party wanted to pass on the first day, such as stripping lawmakers of parliamentary immunity.
“Lots of tasks…we’ll work until morning,” he told the Kyiv Post afterwards. “We still have some work to finish in the committees. It is hard to focus. But our morale is high. We are moving fast.”
David Arakhamia, leader of the Servant of the People faction, said the party aims to stay this productive throughout its tenure.
“Every day that the parliament will work, we will vote for at least 10 draft laws.”
