In five years since the Maidan uprising of 2013-2014, Ukraine has been affected by a counter-revolution or, rather, two counter-revolutions. The first one has been external, in the form of Russian military intervention and the occupation of Ukrainian territory. The second is internal and no less dangerous – the reconstruction of Ukraine’s oligarchic system of governance, entailing corruption, lack of legal and social justice, political assassinations, the legitimisation of far-right violence and the expansion of everyday violence that has been gradually destroying society.
At Sunday’s presidential elections, Ukrainian citizens made a surprising challenge to this established status quo with the landslide victory of showman and political novice Volodymyr Zelensky. The comedian took more than 73% of the vote compared to incumbent Petro Poroshenko’s less than 25%. This “electoral Maidan” is clearly an attempt to fulfill that which Poroshenko has failed to accomplish since 2014. It is a fundamental rejection of Ukraine’s current political class, formed and fashioned long before the “first Maidan” in 2004 – in the era of ex-president Leonid Kuchma.
This, then, is a rebellious popular vote against corrupt politics-as-usual by people who are largely non-political. In this sense, there’s a certain resonance with the Gilets Jaunes movement – and like their French counterparts, Zelensky voters do not have any political unity or ideological coherence. Their basic common denominator is negation. The demands and expectations of Zelensky voters are heterogeneous and even contradictory, ranging from putting an end to the war and oligarchy to increasing wages, lowering prices and household gas tariffs. But in the best traditions of 1968, they are demanding the “impossible” – just social conditions that are equal for all. And 73% means a clear refusal of any kind of negotiations or possible compromise with the current ruling class so that it could remain in power.
