KYIV — Volodymyr Zelenskiy says he is “obsessed” with referendums.
Among the promises Ukraine’s comedian-turned-president made before taking office was to introduce “people’s power through referendums and other forms of direct democracy.” And ahead of the parliamentary election in July, his party, Servant of the People, pledged to create “mechanisms for citizens to influence the authorities through referendums” as well as “a people’s veto on newly adopted laws.”
Now that he’s in office, there’s every sign he plans to deliver. Referendums will play a central role in the president’s efforts to raise the legitimacy of his government and its policies, according to Dmytro Razumkov, the speaker of Ukraine’s parliament and a former leader of Servant of the People.
That’s a steep hill to climb. According to a Gallup poll conducted in March, just ahead of the presidential election, only 9 percent of Ukrainians trusted their government — the lowest ranking in the world.
“Referendums can play a positive role,” Razumkov said in an interview.
A public say
Razumkov has been outspoken about wanting to hold referendums on so-called decommunization — the mass renaming of Soviet-inspired town and city names that was carried out under Petro Poroshenko’s government. “I think it’s right that the people who live in a certain town or city should have the final say over its name,” he said.
Razumkov also suggested referendums on foreign policy, in particular membership of international organizations, would be fair game.
Zelenskiy’s predecessor Poroshenko had proposed national referendums on Ukraine’s eventual EU and NATO membership. These were never held, and the country’s commitment to Euro-Atlantic Integration was added to the constitution after a parliamentary vote in February 2019.
The legitimacy of this type of amendment would be greater if the issue was put to the public first, said Razumkov. “It would be much harder [for the next government to change those amendments] after the public has made clear its views in a referendum on the issue,” he added.
Zelenskiy, who has said he’s committed to Ukraine’s pro-European course, has already suggested holding referendums on NATO and EU membership in order to build consensus on the issue. The referendums would be consultative, not legally binding, he clarified in May. The goal, he said, is “openness in discussing important issues, and not to make decisions behind closed doors, as it was done before.”
Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskiy loves referendums — but Ukrainians are wary | Janek Skarzynski/AFP via Getty Images
The issue could become even more pressing if Zelenskiy chooses to push for a new constitution entirely, rather than continuing his current course of proposing multiple constitutional amendments. In that case, some observers say, he could seek to get it approved in a popular referendum.
Other issues could prove more controversial. Zelenskiy has made ending the war in the country’s east one of his key priorities. In May, the head of his presidential administration, Andriy Bohdan, said that if a final peace deal with Moscow looked like it would be divisive among voters, it could be put to a national referendum.
Svyatoslav Vakarchuk, a popular singer and leader of the Golos party, the fourth largest in Ukraine’s new parliament, called holding a referendum a “dangerous and irresponsible” idea at a time when “not just a hot war, but also an information war, are being waged against us.”
A “real leader” holds referendums when he wants the public’s feedback on a concrete proposal, he said in a separate statement. Referendums, he added, shouldn’t be used to shift the burden of responsibility.
Potential for abuse
Ukrainians are, perhaps unsurprisingly, somewhat wary of referendums — and their potential for abuse.
The country’s independence from the Soviet Union was achieved in part thanks to a referendum in December 1991, Razumkov stressed in the interview. But other attempts to put thorny issues to the people were less successful.
In April 2000, then President Leonid Kuchma held a constitutional referendum on granting the presidency extensive new powers and establishing an upper house for Ukraine’s parliament. The proposed changes were never implemented due to challenges by the Supreme Court and disputes over whether ratification by parliament was also required to do so.
More recently, referendums in Ukraine have come to be associated with Russian aggression: In March 2014, pro-Moscow forces in control of Crimea carried out a disputed referendum on the territory’s status, the results of which were later used by the Kremlin to justify Russia’s annexation of the peninsula. In May of the same year, the Donetsk and Luhansk People’s Republics, two Russian-backed separatist territories in the Donbas region of eastern Ukraine, held referendums on their “state sovereignty.” These areas remain outside the Ukrainian government’s control.
“[Referendums] allow you to not take decisions yourself, letting ‘the people’ decide for you So if things go wrong, they also bear some responsibility” — Volodymyr Fesenko, political scientist
Zelenskiy’s plan to call more referendums is also likely to run into legal hurdles. The country’s constitution obliges the president or parliament to call a referendum on any issue except for taxation, budgets, or the amnesty of criminals, if there is proof of support from at least 3 million Ukrainian voters in at least two-thirds of the country’s provinces.
But there is no law on how these referendums should be conducted — and how the results should be implemented — meaning they can quickly become legal and political quagmires, as several of Zelenskiy’s predecessors discovered.
Zelenskiy’s critics dismiss his fondness for direct democracy as a lack of political vision and an attempt to shrug off accountability.
“[Referendums] allow you to not take decisions yourself, letting ‘the people’ decide for you,” said Volodymyr Fesenko, a political scientist and director of the Kyiv-based Penta Centre for Political Studies. “So if things go wrong, they also bear some responsibility.”
First test
A test to Zelenskiy’s commitment to “people power” will come later this year. In July, his office announced it would cancel Ukraine’s moratorium on selling agricultural land to foreign investors by 2020. Removing this obstacle, which was introduced in 2001, has been a long-standing demand of the International Monetary Fund, and one Zelenskiy must meet to secure badly needed tranches of financial support in future.
In this case, Zelenskiy’s stated commitment to putting important decisions to the people could put him in a difficult position.
“Most probably, everybody will be against the marketization [of land], so it’s a dangerous game he’s playing,” Mikhail Minakov, an expert on Ukrainian politics and senior adviser at the Wilson Center.
Will referendums have a therapeutic or roiling effect on Ukrainian society? | Sergei Gapon/AFP via Getty Images
Opposition politicians are already mobilizing to demand a referendum on the issue. Viktor Medvedchuk, the leader of the pro-Russian Opposition Bloc-For Life, claimed in August that the government has “no moral right” to change the law without a popular vote. Former Prime Minister Yuliya Tymoshenko, who leads the opposition Fatherland party, also voiced opposition to the move.
All this doesn’t mean “power to the people” is a bad idea in itself, said Minakov. Referendums could have a “therapeutic effect” on Ukraine, he said.
“Poroshenko created this ‘small Ukraine,’ [which worked] for a quarter of the electorate, while the rest of society was deprived of a voice and their interests were disregarded,” said Minakov. The political scientist predicted that Zelenskiy would most likely hold referendums on issues of national identity and memory, which are “highly symbolic, but of little practical significance.”
Referendums could give them the sense the government is listening and give them “hope for something better.”
Maxim Edwards is a freelance journalist based in Eastern Europe.