Ruminations on the Ukrainian Parliamentary election
October 31st, 2014A conservative columnist commenting on the Ukrainian Parliamentary election predicts that the euphoria will soon recede and the new democratically elected government will have to do its best in order to normalize the country and strengthen democratic stability.
Ukraine has made an important step towards consolidation, but the road to democracy and stability is still a bumpy one, Magyar Nemzet’s Gábor Stier comments on last weekend’s Parliamentary election in Ukraine. The conservative analyst believes that the election will strengthen the government’s legitimacy, although a separate election will be held in the contested eastern Ukraine districts which have practically seceded from the rest of the country. After the elections, leading politicians can at least claim to have the democratic mandate to start negotiations about the future of the country, Stier notes. Normalization will not be easy, he adds, and will require difficult concessions from President Porosenko. Stier holds that the biggest challenge for the new government will be to find out how Ukraine can overcome its economic and geopolitical crisis. He predicts that as euphoric sentiments recede, social problems will come to the fore. Unless the government tackles corruption and contains pro-violence radicals, it cannot ensure a secure transition to democracy and freedom, Stier concludes.