From criticism to praise – is the applause received by Volodymyr Zelensky justified? – News

Ukraine has been perceived differently since the Russian attack, including its President Volodymyr Zelensky. He’s getting a lot of praise these days. Shortly before the war he was accused of governing in an authoritarian manner and that he had not fought corruption, but merely shifted it to other beneficiaries. The political scientist André Haertel assesses the developments.

André Hartel

political scientist


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Haertel is a political scientist from the Stiftung Wissenschaft und Politik in Berlin. His research areas are Russia, Eastern Europe and Central Asia. He deals, among other things, with Ukrainian domestic and foreign policy.

SRF News: Is the applause that the Ukrainian President Zelensky receives from all sides justified?

André Härtel: Yes, he’s doing well given the circumstances. Of course, he benefits to a certain extent from the fact that during the state of war everything is tailored to him as head of state. Many of the conflicts in which he previously found it very difficult – such as voting or forming alliances with other political institutions and actors in Ukraine – are now falling away to a certain extent. In addition, he can fully exploit his talents in communication because the media concentrates very much on him.

Before the war, you investigated whether Zelenskiy ruled in a populist manner and whether he was leaning towards authoritarianism. What was your finding?

In the one or two years before the war, certain tendencies could be observed: Volodymyr Zelensky sometimes used the shortcut. He no longer followed the usual institutional route, for example when it came to sanctions against pro-Russian oligarchs. Rather, he used the Security Council, an unelected body, to make decisions quickly without waiting for court decisions.

I don’t accuse him of any authoritarianism, just a great deal of inexperience and a certain degree of diplomatic clumsiness.

Especially when dealing with the judiciary or parliament, one could sometimes assume that Selenski was trying to circumvent other institutions. After all, that is covered by the constitution to a certain extent. I don’t accuse him of any authoritarianism, just a great deal of inexperience and a certain degree of diplomatic clumsiness in coordinating and forming alliances with other political actors.

Zelensky speaks in the Ukrainian parliament in Kyiv.

Legend:

Ukraine has a semi-presidential political system and President Zelensky has the majority in the presidency and in parliament on his side.

Reuters

Now that the war is on, you get the even stronger impression that he alone holds the reins and says what’s going on in the country.

Yes, of course it is. Due to the state of war, the decision-making processes are more or less tailored to him. Nevertheless, parliamentary work also runs in the background. Parliament is now extremely preoccupied with the war and anti-collaboration laws and so on. But it is of course the case that the state of war gives the President extraordinary powers.

Debates or just sham debates in the Ukrainian Parliament?


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Legend:

The so-called “turbo regime” is not a thing of the past.

Reuters

“In the early weeks of the war, when Parliament first reconvened, many laws related to the war had to be passed in a relatively short space of time. There were no readings or debates. But that quickly changed again. Parliament now meets relatively regularly and again takes time for debates. There is still a tendency to manipulate Parliament’s rules of procedure in order to be able to push through laws relatively quickly – which we observed even before the war,” says André Härtel.

How much democracy can be lost in a war lest it be lost forever?

I see the dangers of future centralization or an authoritarian regression in Ukraine as rather low. On the contrary: It may even be the case that a situation like that of the 2014/15 revolution will arise; that civil society has become so strong that after the war it will demand renewed or greater involvement in the political processes.

The decision-makers are aware that it will not work without the involvement of all social forces and civil society.

Zelenski enjoys a relatively high reputation abroad. But when it comes to fighting the invasion of Ukraine, things are a bit different. It’s a kind of people’s war. All resources, including social ones, are fully exploited. And the decision-makers in Ukraine are also aware that it will not work without the involvement of all social forces and civil society.

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