The mayor’s year: a quiet drama

A year ago, elections for mayor and city deputies were held in Kyiv. Overall 57 percent of Kyivites voted for Vitalii Klitschko, and his team formed the majority in Kyiv Council. The capital went through a lot in a year. Some changes, positive as well as negative ones, are noticed by the city dwellers, some remain unregarded, but they affect people’s lives directly. The attitude towards the mayor varies as well. He is criticized for raising public transportation fares, but praised for fighting the street trading, blamed for being passive in settling the issue of illegal construction, but it is noted that on some streets, roadworks take place for the first time in decades.

We asked the head of the analytical and research center “Institute of the City” Oleksandr SERHIIENKO about professional achievements and failures of the mayor and his team.

“First of all, the government has changed. This one has new approaches. It became more public. We did not see this during either Omelchenko’s, or Chernovetsky’s, or Popov’s terms. Now any person can visit any committee with a right to express their opinion, they just cannot vote. This is a great achievement,” Serhiienko explains. “Secondly, the financial system became transparent. We can see how the funds flow in the government, it is very important that the public can control this process. Thirdly, systemic action on major roadworks started taking place. Not a single previous government engaged in that. For example, Oleksandr Omelchenko was more interested in PR projects. During his term, asphalt on Khreshchatyk Street has been replaced three or four times, Independence Square was reconstructed... But such routine everyday work, which the master of the city should do, has not been done. Klitschko was the first to pay attention to that. During Popov’s term, only a part of the highway from Koncha-Zaspa to Mezhyhiria was improved. Klitschko undertook the repairs of streets that have not been maintained for 25 years. Perhaps, these are not such large-scale things as reconstruction of the Independence Square, but they influence lives of many people. For example, there was a problem with children’s nutrition. There were no funds provided for that in the budget project, but the team, so to speak, made an effort and found them. Also, the problem of public transport fare for ATO participants was resolved recently. There are a lot of such things, which seem to be insignificant at the first glance, but are of tremendous consequences for the city and people.”

Serhiienko emphasizes that one year is too short of a term for large-scale changes in the city. “There are still scandals with street trading, illegal construction, but remember the scandals during Chernovetsky’s sessions, when deputies, hid behind closed doors and made hundreds of decisions. There are no such scandals now, everything takes place in the open,” the expert says.

Klitschko’s image as a mayor is new for the capital. It is a mayor who rides a bike and cleans up Trukhaniv Island along with Kyivites. “He was the one who started cleaning the Maidan. None of the other politicians tried to clean it, because they were afraid of losing support and ranking, and Klitschko came out together with people and cleaned up everything... If his team is going to move in this direction in the future, we will gradually be solving all our problems, including street trading, overwhelming volumes of ads, and illegal construction,” Serhiienko is convinced.

There are still a lot of problems for the mayor and his team to solve. Among the main ones, Serhiienko points out the creation of the city development strategy. “The second one is the preparation of a new general plan, or correction of the existing one in accordance with the new strategy. The third point is attraction of investments. The fourth – creation of public spaces. There were declarations about creation of a community center, an area for pedestrians in each district. They appear spontaneously, but they are not properly designed in terms of infrastructure, architecture, etc. The fifth is not a task for Klitschko personally, but nevertheless, city guard must be created. The law on municipal guard was adopted, but this is sheer profanation. Public order protection police, I call them ‘city police,’ must be subordinated to the city government. Then they would guarantee the adherence to laws and regulations imposed by the city authorities. The police are to blame for what has happened in Osokorky district. If they knew about this clash and did not prevent it, and 15 police officers were injured in the process, it means they acted inefficiently. If they were subject to the mayor, he would dismiss the police head for this incident, but what can be done in this situation? Such tasks must be on the agenda in Klitschko’s next cadence,” Serhiienko sums up.

COMMENTARY

Maksym ROZUMNY, Doctor of political science, head of the political strategies department, National Institute for Strategic Studies:

“Vitalii Klitschko is a political project in the circumstances, when politics became very similar to business. It was an investment of several influential individuals, one of whom made himself known to the public, it is Dmytro Firtash. But I think this project had more shareholders. The fact that his card was played during the presidential and parliamentary elections is an objective process, base tricks and unfair game should not be looked for there. It is not correct to think that Klitschko has been used during the presidential and parliamentary   elections, because it is merely a project, which is closed for this or that reason. I do not think he personally lost or won because of that. It was a project of the national political leader, who once laid claim to the presidential post, and then to the post of a leader of an influential political force. But the political market showed these were not entirely adequate ideas of him as a brand. This ‘product on the market’ found its niche and now Klitschko is viewed in the context of Kyiv authorities exclusively.

“It was very risky of him to become a mayor for several months, because quite predicted raise of tariffs was to take place, reforms were conducted slowly, no property was seized and no one was put to prison for public display. All this led to disappointment.

“Speaking about the current situation of Klitschko as a politician and his prospects, it is too early to write him off. Obviously, he is a very inert and inactive politician, and this serves him bad. In modern politics, which lives according to the laws of show business, such insufficiently public, dynamic, and bright politician will lose in a short run. But this does not mean he will not receive enough support. So, Klitschko slowly but surely does his thing, earning his points. For example, a fence around the Botanical Garden is built near my workplace, and he will be able to implement some more projects before the election. Klitschko will find voters that like him and hope for the stability of the government. And the intrigue of Kyiv elections is not in Vitalii Klitschko’s behavior, but whether a decent alternative will appear. There are no Maidan politicians in Kyiv that will be received warmly now. However, such a candidate can be created on a political market in several months, provided that considerable financial, media, and administrative resources exist.”

Interviewed by Dmytro KRYVTSUN, The Day