Most of the summer has passed in the course of preparation for early parliamentary elections. The election campaign is now coming to an end. "Apostrophe" asked the representatives of the parties leading in the election race, what draft laws they will first submit to the Verkhovna Rada.
"Servant of people"
The favorite of early parliamentary elections, the party "Servant of people" has big plans for the Parliament. Zelensky’s team has explicitly declared that the new convocation of Parliament should start working in the summer. The team also hinted to the local political elite that they could possibly face local elections.
The "Servant of people" intends not just to pass laws, but also to radically change the political system in the country. The promise is good and lasting: it lives from election to election.
According to the party leader Dmytro Razumkov, it is already possible to achieve the desired goals by the end of 2019. The politician identified the main draft laws of their party.
"After the parliamentary elections, the party "Servant of people" will first of all insist on the adoption of bills on impeachment of the President, on responsibility for illegal enrichment, which were introduced by Volodymyr Zelensky, and on the abolition of parliamentary immunity," Razumkov said.
It should be noted that the procedure of impeachment of the President has already been prescribed in the law on temporary commissions of inquiry adopted on June 6. But it is still not signed by President Volodymyr Zelensky, and although the deadline has expired, the environment of the guarantor makes it clear that this will not happen at all.
"The President clearly said that he would not sign any law in which there was a piano voting or if other major violations of regulatory procedures were committed. Therefore, we are now carefully studying these issues," the representative of the President in the Parliament Ruslan Stefanchuk previously said.
Also the eighth convocation of Parliament managed to begin consideration of draft laws on removal of parliamentary immunity on which there are also conclusions of the constitutional court. According to the sources of "Apostrophe" in the party "Servant of people", the future fraction, most likely, will not start this process again.
"We will finish what we have for speed," the source said.
"Opposition platform - for life"
The party "Opposition platform - for life" is confidently going to Parliament. Its open dialogues with Moscow and promises to restore contacts with Russia are well received by voters in the South-East.
The party "Opposition platform - for life" promises to deploy intensive work in the Parliament, hinting that they will be the second largest. Some representatives of the political environment called it a revenge of Pro-Russian forces. And it will be interesting to see how the cooperation of the coalition and the "Opposition platform - for life" will be built.
One of the candidates from the party and the current MP Yurii Pavlenko agreed to tell "Apostrophe" what they will their first draft laws will be. The list was very long.
"We have prepared a number of projects. The first concerns a peaceful settlement in the Donbas, which is based on the Minsk agreements. The second package includes bills that affect tariffs and lower gas prices. They were already registered in the Parliament of the VIII convocation, but the speaker of Parliament Andrii Parubiy did not include them in the agenda. We plan to introduce them again, but they should be more adapted to the current conditions," the MP says.
The third package included the draft laws on social security. The increase in the subsistence minimum, minimum pensions and wages are covered in this package. Some of the projects concerning refugees. And, of course, the party will not forget about medical reform.
They also plan to initiate the abolition of decommunization (although the constitutional court recognized it constitutional) and the law on the functioning of the Ukrainian language.
"It will not just be the abolition, but the creation of a new law that would guarantee the support and development of the Ukrainian language as the state language, as well as provide for a system of support for other native languages for the citizens of Ukraine," Pavlenko commented.
"European solidarity"
Representatives of "European solidarity", apparently, were completely immersed in work. In any case, nobody who "Apostrophe" tried to contact, has time for comments. All of them refused to comment under the pretext of being very busy.
Earlier, the leader of the party - ex-President Petro Poroshenko has already announced the first legislative initiatives. They will be aimed against the revenge of Pro-Russian forces. The "European solidarity" is actively promoting the idea of revenge.
The fraction will initiate bills that provide for criminal liability for non-recognition of Crimea and Donbass as the territories belonging to Ukraine. Poroshenko also proposes to support the deprivation of the media that promote Pro-Russian propaganda of the license.
"In the latest convocation of the Verkhovna Rada we have introduced a draft law on the tax on the withdrawn capital. We have discussed this project with representatives of business. I will do everything to make this project a law," Poroshenko told to the magazine “Novoye Vremia”.
"Batkivshchyna"
Party leader Yuliia Tymoshenko decided to continue the strategy of the "New course", presented at the presidential elections. For the parliamentary elections the team of "Batkivshchyna" slightly reformatted it and introduced it under the new slogan, "We need action". According to Tymoshenko, most of her proposals can be implemented in a short time.
"We presented 10 steps that can be done in the first 100 working hours of the new Parliament, or rather in 10 days," MP and candidate from "Batkivshchyna" Olena Shkrum told to “Apostrophe”.
The proposals include voting for a new Tax code and, of course, tariffs. Let us remind, that on July 9 Tymoshenko declared the decision of the Sixth appellate administrative court on illegality of increase in the price of gas in May, 2016.
"Therefore, the bill on tariffs will be on-point. And the President must veto the decisions of the Cabinet of Ministers, which the court found illegal," Shkrum adds.
The top ten of the steps also included an inventory of all resources of the country, de-offshorization, the increase of the minimum pension and the replacement of the current medical reform for the system of obligatory medical insurance. Tymoshenko's proposals are a bit similar to the initiatives of the "Opposition platform - for life". But it all depends on the internal content of the draft projects.
"Voice"
Sviatoslav Vakarchuk in May informed that the first draft project of his fraction will concern deoligarchization. But he refused to tell more.
"I am against oligarchs using politicians and paying their salaries. We will fight against it," the leader of the party said in his interview to Liga.net.
So "Apostrophe" decided to ask about this the deputy leader of the party Yaroslav Yurchyshyn. He said that the first draft laws will form three blocks.
"The first block will include initiatives that limit the power of oligarchs. We plan to divide it into three large groups," the candidate said.
The groups will deal with restrictions on ownership and control of the media, namely, reduction of political advertising, verification of beneficial owners of media and expansion of the powers of the National Commission on television and radio broadcasting.
According to many sources of "Apostrophe", both in party, and in political circles, "Voice" is sponsored by the oligarch Viktor Pinchuk. In this regard, it is interesting indeed how active in the party of Vakarchuk will be in the promotion of the idea of deoligarchization, when the party gets to the Parliament.
Also, the "Voice" plans to deal with the judicial reform. "The majority of the members of the High Qualification Commission of judges and the High Council of Justice are representatives of the old judiciary, who have not been assessed for integrity. Therefore, we propose to reboot these two bodies and to check the current members," Yurchyshyn said.
In addition, the party wants to deal with the reform of the Parliament. Like the "Servant of people", Vakarchuk's party supports cancellation of parliamentary immunity. And it also proposes to introduce liability for truancy.
The "Voice" promises to introduce he relevant draft laws in the first days of the work of the new Parliament. We shouldn’t also forget that the party of Vakarchuk is the main contender for participation in the coalition. Therefore, the question arises whether the party will find a common language with future colleagues from the "Servants of the people" to support their ideas.
