Michel TERESTCHENKO: “Being both the most Ukrainian of Europeans and the most European of Ukrainians I consider it very important to show the people that even a small town in Ukraine can have the same quality of life as in Europe”

“I am grateful to all my friends who supported me. For us it is a first step and a novel experience, for we are not politicians. We employed a team of volunteers – not buying a single vote, not paying anyone for the work at the elections. And it’s the volunteers I owe such a good elections outcome, because they saw through every provocation, they documented every instance of election rigging, they were active and professional. I am pleased to have worked with these people, and I congratulate our whole team on the victory.

 “I would also like to thank newspaper Den in particular; you showed that here in Hlukhiv we were not isolated from the rest of Ukraine, that we have friends there who are ready to help. Over the past few weeks, Den has prepared some resonant articles about our town – and they were fantastic. Selling the newspaper in Hlukhiv now will be a great success, because people want to read every interview and article your newspaper has published.

 “We are very surprised at 65 percent of votes – it is still a very high result for us, although we have seen the massive support among the residents of Hlukhiv earlier. All these people want change, and we definitely will be bringing that change to life. Our priority now is to show how quickly, effectively, and decisively we can pull it off.

 “Being both the most Ukrainian of Europeans and the most European of Ukrainians I consider it very important to show the people that even a small town in Ukraine can have the same quality of life as in Europe. And if I were to fail at purging the corruption from the town, or at attracting investments and creating the opportunities, it would mean that no one could do it. Therefore, there is a big responsibility on me – to perform my tasks swiftly and successfully, otherwise the people might lose their hopes for change completely.”