Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has hinted that he may try running for a second term during his May 20 press conference on the results of his first year in the office.
“I don’t know… Frankly, one [term] won’t be enough,” Zelensky said, answering a question on whether he would stop at one term.
A journalist from RBK-Ukraine news outlet originally asked Zelensky whether one term would be enough for him to do everything he promised to the Ukrainian people. Zelensky did not immediately respond but answered when the journalist repeated the question in a shorter form.
“I will think about it,” Zelenksy later said, after a journalist from the NewsOne TV channel asked him to clarify.
One of Zelensky’s campaign promises was that he was running for only one term.
“As you say, I will go for one (term),” Zelensky said after another journalist reminded him about the promise. “As the people of Ukraine will say. Any president who has 10-15% or 16% support at the start of any election campaign … has no right to run for president of Ukraine.”
“I’m going for one term, as I said. I see that the work is difficult, that nobody will say thanks. But if there will be great support from Ukraine, I will be able to think about it.”
Zelensky also added that one term won’t be enough to complete his “list” – of promises and things he wanted to achieve as president. The number of goals on the list has increased as his team started working, he said, to include things like medical reform and the construction of bridges.
First Deputy Head of the Presidential Office Serhiy Trofimov had also previously hinted about Zelensky pursuing a second term in an interview.
“People will not want (just) one term for Volodymyr Zelensky,” Trofimov said on the Ukraine 24 TV channel. “What will be his decision and his choice – we probably have to live these five years (to see).”
