President Volodymyr Zelensky on March 13 urged his governing Servant of the People party to stop infighting and finish the creation of an agricultural land market, judicial reform, and government decentralization.
“The promises we’ve made are our main agenda,” said Zelensky during his speech at the Servant of the People convention.
The president’s speech targets ongoing problems inside the party. Despite having 245 members in parliament, the Servant of the People party has been unable to pass crucial legislation without assistance from the opposition.
“Crucial laws must always gather at least the minimum required 226 votes,” said Zelensky. “You shouldn’t care of how other parties vote.”
However, Zelensky isn’t the only power broker in his party. Political experts say that oligarchs Ihor Kolomoisky and Rinat Akhmetov, Interior Minister Arsen Avakov, and Verkhovna Rada Speaker Dmytro Razumkov have lawmakers who tend to support their patron’s interests over those of the president.
Read More: Zelensky’s party loses support, trails in polls
Among the last failed initiatives, the governing Servant of the People party wasn’t able to appoint the former executive director of the state-owned Naftogaz gas monopolist Yuriy Vitrenko as energy minister.
Despite Zelensky’s plea, his candidacy was supported only by 204 lawmakers.
Ukraine has lacked an energy minister since March 4, 2020.
Stalled reforms
Now, Zelensky urges his party lawmakers to remember their campaign promises and provide the necessary votes.
“It’s not a secret (what we’ve promised), it is written in our political program, we have all signed it,” said Zelensky.
However, 1.5 years after parliament elections it is clear that the governing party is unable to singlehandedly pass the required reforms.
In March 2020, Ukraine’s parliament has finally passed a law legalizing the sale of farmland and lifting the country’s 19-year moratorium on land transactions. The parliament spent nearly two months voting on the amendments.
However, the reform isn’t done.
Olexandr Kornienko, chairman of the Servant of the People party, said on March 12, that the party will finally put up for a vote two bills required for Ukraine to be able to open its land market in July.
The two bills are set to amend the land code and decentralize land ownership, transferring state land to local communities, and would allow the government to carry out land auctions in real-time online, granting the right to own land on the spot to the highest bidder.
However, this will be the second time the bills are up for a vote. In December, only 144 lawmakers representing the Servant of the People party supported the bills.
The judicial reform, mentioned by Zelensky in his speech, is another weak spot.
On March 3, Zelensky’s party passed a bill ensuring the revival of the High Qualification Commission for judges in the first reading.
The new bill was supported by 227 lawmakers. External help came from the 24-member Dovira faction, linked to Avakov. No opposition lawmakers supported the bill.
The bill has been lambasted by anti-corruption activists and legal experts. According to them, without a proper judicial reform, creating a new judicial body with old judges will only legitimize and entrench the current corrupt system.
The decentralization reform has also been stalled in parliament. The reform began in 2014, under President Petro Poroshenko, and is set to give more powers to local communities. However, to complete the reform a constitutional amendment is required that can be passed by no less than 300 lawmakers.
Talking about decentralization, Zelensky has called on mayors and local council members to reform their communities without waiting on commands from Kyiv.
“To reform your community, your village, your city you don’t need to wait on regular step-by-step instructions from Kyiv,” said Zelensky.
“Take the initiative into your own hands, we have given you everything – power, money,” he added.
