Everything started Wednesday evening, January 15, when the embarrassing wiretaps of a Cabinet meeting of PM Honcharuk, Finance Minister Oksana Markarova, First Deputy Head of the National Bank Kateryna Rozhkova and other officials leaked into the Internet. Amid the discussion of economic issues the voice resembling that of the Prime Minister’s called himself “a complete ignoramus in economics” and added that Zelenskyy, too, was not very good at this particular field. Next morning, the PM called the wiretaps the scheming of political opponents of the current power and warned that “the team of the President is not that easy to be bullied”. Nevertheless, a day later, on Friday, the PM announced his decision to resign. “I took up this position to help the President with implementing his program. However, in order to eliminate any doubts about our respect for and trust in the President, I’ve written a letter of resignation and handed it over to the President to be submitted to the Parliament”, explained the PM.
For the whole day, the Office of the President kept silent concerning Honcharuk’s resignation. The only thing that the President did was the following: he ordered law enforcers to establish within the next two weeks persons who had tapped the closed meeting of the Premier with his ministers. The President also instructed relevant departments to develop measures that would help protect sensitive information so that similar incidents will not happen in the future.
Finally, on Friday night the answer came from the Presidential Office that Zelenskyy had not accepted the resignation of the Prime Minister and decided to give him “another chance” provided that he and his Cabinet would fulfill a string of tasks. “I’ve decided to give one more chance to you and your Government on condition that you will carry out crucial tasks that are the subject of great public concern. Now it’s not the time to shake the State economically and politically”, said Zelenskyy during his meeting with Honcharuk. The President set the following agenda for the Cabinet to fulfill: first, to work out and present new guidelines for forming the salary scales for ministers, top executives of departments and companies and their deputies taking into account a complex situation in the country. At the same time, Zelenskyy warned that those ministers who believe that the salaries offered them by the Government do not suit them will have to vacate their positions. Also, the President instructed the PM to deal with the situation involving multi-million bonuses that are due to Naftohaz top managers for winning the lawsuit against the Russian GazProm at the Stockholm Court of Arbitration. “They ought to remember that they are not only pragmatic managers but ordinary people as well. And therefore they have to find a way from this situation. If they do not want to listen to you, then they will definitely have to listen to lawyers. The management of Naftohaz will be completely reshuffled”, the President said. Zelenskyy emphasized the importance of strengthening the Cabinet by carrying out changes in personnel.
Analysts say that so far Ukrainian presidents have not made PMs resign because of some silly and even funny wiretapped conversations. Prime Ministers have to step down in one case only when they become contenders for an acting President. However, Zelenskyy appoints to top positions such persons who cannot be in competition to him, especially after such idiotic talks that have been leaked into the Internet. Here is what political scientist Volodymyr Fesenko says, “The President is going to attend the World Economic Forum in Davos. To make the Prime Minister resign prior Davos is a bad sign for investors. Well, after Davos any changes are possible. Besides, the issue of land reform is not yet settled. In this particular case, the resignation of the Government may appear to be inopportune, too. Nevertheless, the storm clouds may gather over Honcharuk’s head any time. And then a lightning strike is no long in coming”.
The newspaper Holos Ukrainy
