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Zelenskiy Sworn In As Ukrainian President, Says He's Dissolving Parliament
By RFE/RL
KYIV -- Volodymyr Zelenskiy has been sworn in as president of Ukraine, immediately announcing he is dissolving parliament in an apparent effort to strengthen his position at the start of a five-year term that promises plenty of challenges and to sideline allies of his predecessor, Petro Poroshenko.
In remarks after taking the oath of office at the Verkhovna Rada on May 20, Zelenskiy also called for the dismissal of top security officials including controversial Prosecutor-General Yuriy Lutsenko, the defense minister, and the head of the Security Service of Ukraine, all seen as Poroshenko loyalists.
A 41-year-old comedian and actor with no previous political experience, Zelenskiy broke with tradition by walking through a park on the way to parliament, high-fiving people, taking a selfie with supporters, and then quoting former U.S. President Ronald Reagan -- who was also an actor -- in his address.
Zelenskiy, who until now has sought laughs for a living, said that he would do everything he could to ensure "Ukrainians do not cry" and declared that he is ready to lose the job he just got if it would bring peace to the war-ravaged eastern region known as the Donbas, where Russia-backed separatists hold parts of two provinces.
Moving to consolidate power on his first day in office, Zelenskiy declared, "I dissolve the Verkhovna Rada of the eighth assembly."
The next parliamentary elections had been scheduled for October 27, and Zelenskiy did not propose a specific date for a snap vote. But he said that lawmakers must dismiss the security officials and pass several key pieces of legislation, including bills to cancel lawmakers' immunity and to prosecute officials for illegal enrichment, within two months -- the maximum period of time, according to the constitution, between a published decision on the dissolution of parliament and the election of a new one.
Before that announcement, Zelenskiy said he will bring many changes and invoked Reagan to suggest that he would go straight to the people for solutions to pressing problems in the country of 44 million, which faces deep-seated corruption, economic challenges, and the conflict with Russia-backed militants that has killed some 13,000 people in the eastern provinces of Donetsk and Luhansk since April 2014. The same year, Russia occupied and seized the Crimean Peninsula from Ukraine.
"I would like to quote an American actor who, like me, later became a great president, and who said, 'Government is not the solution to our problem, government is the problem,'" Zelenskiy said -- a quote from Reagan's first inaugural address in 1981.
He said that government officials should not hang his picture in their offices. Instead, he urged them, "Hang up photos of your kids -- and before you make every decision, look them in the eye."
There have been disputes over whether Zelenskiy has the authority to dissolve parliament because of the timing of his inauguration and because the governing European Ukraine coalition fell apart last week after the People's Front party announced it was quitting -- a move seen by many as a bid by his political foes to bar him from disbanding the parliament.
Opponents say the constitution gives parliament 30 days to form a new coalition and that the president cannot dissolve it during that time. Zelenskiy and his allies argue that European Ukraine, in fact, stopped being a ruling coalition after three political parties left its ranks years ago.
Initially, the coalition that was established in November 2014 consisted of the Petro Poroshenko Bloc, the People's Front, Samopomich (Self-Reliance), Batkivshchyna (Fatherland), and the Radical Party. The latter three political parties quit the coalition in 2015-16.
Zelenskiy's opponents also point out that the constitution prohibits the president from dissolving parliament less than six months before its mandate expires. But there are differing opinions on whether that date is November 27 or later, in December, and allies of the new president contend that he is within his rights to dissolve the legislature.
Ahead in the polls from the early stages of the presidential campaign, Zelenskiy easily won the most votes in the first round on March 31 and beat Poroshenko by a large margin in the runoff on April 21.
Unlike his predecessors, instead of arriving to the ceremony in a heavily guarded vehicle, he walked to the Rada in Kyiv through an adjacent park where thousands of people were gathered.
Flanked by several bodyguards next to him, Zelenskiy gave high-fives to some of the people and took a selfie with a spectator's mobile phone.
In his remarks after being sworn in, Zelenskiy said that "not just me, but all Ukrainians have just put their hands on the constitution and been sworn in."
Zelenskiy said that he is ready to grant citizenship to Ukrainians around the world who choose to come to the country and bring the "knowledge and values we need here."
In part, that promise sounded like a retort to Russian President Vladimir Putin, who last month signed a decree that made it easier for people living in the portion of eastern Ukraine held by Moscow-backed militants to obtain Russian citizenship.
Putin has not congratulated Zelenskiy on his election.
Zelenskiy said that a chief priority is to bring peace to the Donbas.
"I'm ready to do all I can so that our heroes don't die there, and if necessary I am ready to lose my post to bring peace there," Zelenskiy said, adding that peace must be reached without Ukraine losing any territories.
Zelenskiy gave his inauguration speech in Ukrainian, but delivered two short passages in Russian.
In one of those, he said the first steps toward peace in the Donbas must include an exchange of captives. Russia has jailed or imprisoned dozens of Ukrainians on charges or convictions that Kyiv, Western governments, and international human rights groups say are politically motivated.
In his second statement in Russian, Zelenskiy assured Russian-speaking Ukrainians in Russia-held Crimea and the separatist-held parts of Donetsk and Luhansk that he will always consider them Ukrainian citizens.
When Radical Party leader Oleh Lyashko interrupted Zelenskiy, saying that he could speak in Ukrainian, as Russian-speaking Ukrainians can understand it, Zelenskiy answered, "Mr. Lyashko, you continue to divide our people."
He ended his remarks by saying: "All my life, I have done my best to make Ukrainians laugh, and in the next five years to come I will do what I can so that Ukrainians do not cry. Glory to Ukraine!"
Two of the officials whose dismissals Zelenskiy demanded -- Defense Minister Stepan Poltorak and Security Service chief Vasyul Hrytsak -- offered their resignations on May 20.
There was no such public offer from Lutsenko, who is at the center of concerns about persistent corruption in Ukraine.
With reporting by Merhat Sharipzhan, RFE/RL's Ukrainian Service, Current Time, Reuters, AP, and AFP
Zelenskiy Sworn In As Ukrainian President, Says He Is Dissolving Parliament
Volodymyr Zelenskiy took the oath of office as Ukraine's new president on May 20 in Kyiv. In his inaugural speech, he announced that he is dissolving the Verkhovna Rada, Ukraine's parliament, and called for the dismissal of several top officials. Zelenskiy also said that he was ready for dialogue to stop the fighting with Russia-backed separatists in the country's east. (Ukraine's presidential press service via Reuters)
