Zelensky calls for renewing regional development council

Ukrainian President Zelensky called for the need to
renew the Council for Regional Development on his Facebook page on Dec. 8 in
order to improve communication between the Kyiv government, the president’s
regional administrations and local councils. The decentralization reform under
the previous president granted more authority to local councils, but also
created the conditions for “a desperate struggle” for influence throughout
Ukraine. “Constructive forces in local councils, the central government and
society should restrain the appetites of hustlers, who view local budgets and
their new authority exclusively as a personal feeder or compensator for lost
opportunities on the national level,” Zelensky wrote. The Council for Regional
Development was created by former President Poroshenko in April 2015.

Zenon Zawada: Zelensky
issued his statement on Local Self-Governance Day. But his call for renewing
the regional development council was also likely motivated by the confirmation
that his party’s candidate lost the mayoral runoff elections in his own
hometown of Kryviy Rih. It’s likely he saw that as a signal that his politics
are failing (besides the disappointing results of the Oct. 25 local elections,
despite his party earning the most seats.)

Among the defining trends of the Zelensky era so
far is the emergence of powerful mayors and their satellite parties. If
Poroshenko and former PM Volodymyr Groysman laid the framework for
decentralization, then Zelensky threw the floodgates open with his
inexperience. So Zelensky and his officials will be going into these regional
development council meetings as paupers, rather than influencers. It’s another
example of Zelensky reacting to problems, rather than proactively approaching
them.