Eleven years ago, the Revolution of Dignity put an end to the uncertainty and “multi-vector” nature of Ukrainian politics and secured the European choice of the Ukrainian people. In the same year, the Association Agreement between Ukraine and the EU was signed and ratified. In the following years, the Free Trade Area and visa-free government has come into effect; the course for EU membership has been included in the Constitution of Ukraine; and yet the country received the position of a candidate country and began negotiations. Today, the European Union and its members are reliable partners of Kyiv in strengthening defence and financing the state budget during war time.
At all these stages, independent and effective anti-corruption institutions stay 1 of the key conditions for Ukraine’s European integration. They are not a method detail, but a systemic requirement, 1 of the main criteria for assessing Ukraine’s advancement on the way to EU membership and a symbol of compatibility regarding politics and values.
For the past 11 years, an unwritten agreement between the people and authorities has been in effect in Ukraine. This was centred on not rowing back on the gains achieved during the Revolution of Dignity — primarily the course toward Europe. While this agreement was in effect, people usage to forgive all administration for quite a few mistakes, as the main thought was preserved. This thought is what the full country is based on — the dream of a European, not a Russian, future.
In times of war, this meant self-restraint on the part of citizens. Despite the authorities’ mistakes, people would not criticize the government or enter into any kind of confrontation. The people understood the extraordinary challenges for the country and the deficiency of elections on the horizon.
The law that was adopted, which became a trigger for mass protests, eliminates the independency of anti-corruption bodies, turning them into units of an unreformed and politically dependent prosecutor’s office. It besides importantly limits the effectiveness of these bodies’ work, depriving them of the chance to keep the confidentiality of investigations.
In essence, this means the demolition of 1 of the most crucial factors that keep Ukraine’s doors to the European Union open. The law has challenged the trust and support from European partners, which is vital in times of war, and has threatened the Ukrainian dream of a better future that gives people strength both on the front and in the rear. Among another things, this creates grounds for rolling back the existing achievements of European integration and importantly increases the financial risks for the country.
The highly fast adoption of the law with many violations of the parliament’s regulations; force on members of parliament (and the fact that many MPs who are the subjects of the investigations voted with a clear conflict of interest); and immediate signing by the president while the laws most crucial for the country’s defence and budget have remained not signed for months, all looked like a abrupt and decisive change in the country’s geopolitical course.
The effect of the unwritten social contract created the illusion among the authorities that there is not any public resistance, and this has led to the accumulation of errors. A critical mass has yet formed in fresh months.
There has besides been disruption regarding the reboot of the Bureau of economical safety and the advanced Qualification Commission of Judges, as well as the application of politically motivated selective justice to public activists, military personnel, journalists, etc. This has created a feeling of returning to 2013, erstwhile Ukraine’s geopolitical and civilizational choice had not yet been made.
So, in the eyes of a large part of society, the social contract has been broken. For their part, people felt free before as they held up their half of the social contract.
People who took to the streets in all major cities in Ukraine (including those close to the front line, where regular shelling occurs), view the current events as a disruption of the course towards European integration, for which the advanced bloody price was paid not only during the Revolution of Dignity 2013-14, but besides during the war to argue Russian aggression aimed at changing Ukraine’s European choice. The rallies of thousands in major cities were spontaneous and genuine. This is what the people’s voice sounds like, the voice of dissatisfied citizens whose future is being stolen.
Old tradition, fresh features
I would like to emphasize that the street protests have been organized and populated not by conventional NGOs but by the next generation — very young people for whom the Revolution of Dignity in 2013-14 is history, a legend. They grew up in assurance in the immutability of the European course. At the same time, another generations joined, and many war veterans were visible. For the older ones, their key thought was expressed in blunt terms: “I can’t believe I inactive gotta protest this shit.” For the younger ones, the key slogans were related to their feeling that their European and democratic dream was being taken distant from them and alternatively they were being pushed onto the Russian authoritarian way (“Ukraine is not Russia,” “My father did not die for this,” etc.).
For the youth who form the core of the protest, this is the first political event in their life, it is their intellectual initiation — their entry into adulthood and subjectivity. To any extent, they feel like they are continuing the tradition, and this is evidenced by the slogans of erstwhile Maidan revolutions (1990, 2004-05, 2013-14) that occasionally appear among the fresh ones.
An incredible fresh feature of the “cardboard revolution” is that almost all individual is the bearer of his/her own creative slogan, and they want to be photographed and recorded. This is simply a manifestation of higher subjectivity, a Ukrainian take on “I am a drop in the ocean.” The light, joyful temper and assurance in strength contrast with the first days of Euromaidan in 2013, erstwhile a feeling of lost chances and “hopeless hopes” hung in the air.
Another crucial feature of the current protests is the noticeable increase in the value of institutions. The Orange Revolution in 2004-05 was for a political personality, while the Revolution of Dignity in 2013-14 was for civilizational choice. Now, the people are raising their voice for state institutions (although there are many complaints about the work of anti-corruption institutions). Protesters have clearly indicated their pro-state, not anti-state, position.
I would like to separately note that the advancement of the police (from privates to generals) over 11 years is visible to the bare eye.
The protests showed the confusion of the authorities. The old political strategists do not know what to do with free people, born not in slavery, but in freedom. Sincerity cannot be faked.
The president’s legality (legal right to rule) remains unchanged in wartime, but his legitimacy (public designation of the moral right to rule) has suffered greatly.
Unfortunately, the parliament showed insufficient subjectivity. It was the parliament that saved Ukraine from all the crises in its fresh political history, but not now. any MPs were intimidated, and any could not figure it all out under pressure. But besides among the MPs there are any who are very outdated, mentally stuck at the beginning of the century, 20 years behind. It is as if they missed all the events of those times. People are studying and judging the behaviour of each circumstantial MP. any prestigious communities have expelled MPs from their ranks.
The protests saved Ukraine’s image in the West, which is vital for the country. alternatively of the bad impression that Kyiv has rejected the fight against corruption and turned distant from the European path, now there is an knowing that society and the political elite have diverged in positions in a democratic way and are now trying to resolve the problem.
For the first time, western observers have seen in Zelenskyy the individual that Ukrainians are utilized to seeing: not a fantastic hero embodying all the virtues of the nation, but a surviving individual with advantages and disadvantages, who abruptly faces the challenge of leading the opposition of millions of heroes. In the western consciousness, a decoupling of Ukraine and Volodymyr Zelenskyy has begun to occur.
Russia is in shock and has not yet digested what it has seen. On the 1 hand, they hope to usage the protests to weaken Ukrainian unity, but they do not yet know how, due to the fact that they do not realize Ukrainian society. On the another hand, their top fear, which has terrified them since the collapse of the USSR, has appeared before their eyes.
This is not the end of the story. Ukraine must appear from this political crisis stronger, not weaker, and that is no easy task.
Postscript
All of the above was written before the parliament voted on the presidential law on restoring the independency of anti-corruption bodies. Under the simultaneous force of civilian society and global partners, the political mistake was corrected.
Thus, Ukraine took the first crucial step towards overcoming the political crisis through activism, solidarity and wisdom. It can be said that the youth saved Ukraine’s loyalty to its European choice and democracy.
This is not the end, but the beginning. First, the independency of anti-corruption bodies was restored, but another simultaneously introduced deteriorations in the regulation of law were not corrected. Second, Ukraine has missed a number of indicators and milestones in accordance with its obligations to the EU and global financial institutions. We have not yet returned to the point where we were before the crisis began. And we inactive do not realize who has learned what lessons from these historical events.
The minimum agenda, defined by civilian society organizations and global commitments, includes: launching the improvement of the Bureau of economical safety and customized Office; renewing the usage of global experts in the advanced Qualification Commission of Judges; appointing selected judges to the Constitutional Court; rejecting problematic amendments to the Criminal Code; full restoring tv broadcasts from the parliament, including committee meetings; and introducing the timely signing of adopted draft laws by the president. The best way to full overcome the crisis is political leadership in reforms, which will reconstruct undermined trust both internally and externally.
Street protests in times of war are an highly dangerous phenomenon. At the same time, they should be resorted to erstwhile there are no another ways. The participants in the protests showed wisdom, solidarity and tolerance. All this would not have happened if a systematic dialog had been established between the authorities, expert communities and civilian society. If everything remains as it is, further mistakes are inevitable. At the same time, comparing the current situation with the erstwhile mass protests of past decades shows how incredibly Ukrainian society has grown.
Valerii Pekar is simply a president of the board of Decolonization NGO, the author of 4 books, an adjunct prof. at the Kyiv-Mohyla Business School and Business School of the Ukrainian Catholic University, and a erstwhile associate of the National improvement Council.
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