The choice before the “Servant of the People”: either a new leader or a new party structure?
A rethinking of the leadership of the current presidential Servant of the People party may occur in the coming weeks.
The first changes will affect the person of the head of the party - Elena Shulyak completed her two-year term of office in mid-November and, according to Glavkom sources, it most likely will not be extended. There are several reasons for this: this is the actual stay of the leading political force in suspended animation, and the ambiguity of the person of Shulyak herself, who was struck by a loud scandal with the urban planning reform she initiated.
Theoretically, Shulyak can stand for re-election, but he is unlikely to do so, realizing the slim chances. Therefore, the most realistic scenario seems to be this: the current leader, to applause, will announce his resignation from party affairs in order to focus on another area of work, and the “servants” will elect a new leader.
All leaders of “Servant of the People”
Registered in April 2016 as the “Party of Decisive Changes” (leader – Yevgeny Yurdyga), in December 2017 – change of name to “Servant of the People”.
December 2017 – May 2019 – Ivan Bakanov
May – November 2019 – Dmitry Razumkov
December 2019 – November 2021 – Alexander Kornienko
November 2021 – to this day – Elena Shulyak
Let us remind you that Elena Shulyak, who is not well known to the general public, was elected party leader at the congress on November 15, 2021. She was once invited to join Zelensky’s team by ex-Prime Minister Alexei Goncharuk; she was considered close to a construction worker. At the time of her election as party leader, Shulyak held the position of deputy chairman of the Verkhovna Rada Committee on the Organization of State Power, Local Self-Government, Regional Development and Urban Planning, and at the end of last year she headed it.
Actually, it was precisely for her activities in the committee, and not at the head of the party, that Shulyak became widely known, and not in the best context. We are talking about the already mentioned urban planning bill No. 5655, which caused general resistance, which is why it has not yet been signed by the president. And it is unlikely that Zelensky was too pleased with the fact of the scandal in which the head of his party was involved.
The Great War stopped the complex centrifugal processes in the Servant of the People, which began after the party’s very modest result in local elections. But at the same time, the mega-party has finally turned into the “crutches” of the President’s Office. In fact, this was quite expected, but the first post-war shock has long passed. Some of the “servants” no longer see themselves in Zelensky’s team, and difficult voting, when the faction leadership has to face outright blackmail from their own and resort to the help of other factions and parliamentary groups, clearly demonstrates this.
A man instead of a woman
The top management of Servant of the People has already spoken about the upcoming purges of the ranks. The head of the mono-majority, David Arakhamia, announced in his recent scandalous interview that the party will face many personnel changes in the future: “We are monitoring everyone now and are not making any moves so as not to send this signal into space. If we now “crack” the entire party, then this will be a signal that we are preparing for something (for elections), and then everyone else, due to great political mistrust, will begin to prepare and quarrels will begin again. That's why we don't do it, but that doesn't mean we don't do our homework. We are doing, analyzing which people we want to go with as a political force and with whom we certainly won’t go anywhere.”
In addition to the rebus with the date of the next elections, the secret plans of the president add to the uncertainty in the future of the “servants”. If Zelensky runs for a second term (and the presidential elections will most likely be combined with parliamentary elections), then it seems logical to bury the “Servant of the People” as a project that has served its purpose and collapsed under its own weight. Then, in its place, a new unhindered party-bloc should be built, focused on Zelensky. And, of course, on new principles, because since 2019, a lot has changed in the country, to put it mildly. Whether it makes sense to try to revive Servant of the People with new energetic leaders right now is a big question.
Although we must pay tribute: the political force’s website and its social networks are regularly updated, and not only by duplicating the president’s video messages.
Shulyak herself talks about the progress of the Restoration program, helps calculate the amount of compensation for damaged housing and presents legislative initiatives in the field of democracy, which was one of the already forgotten tricks of the “servants” during the elections. According to Glavkom sources, Shulyak’s replacement is chosen from two male people’s deputies, one of whom, according to new realities, has a military background. It is noteworthy that the majority of members of the party political council with whom “Glavkom” spoke were not at all aware of the imminent replacement of Shulyak. “It’s clear that the issue of the head of the party will, in fact, be resolved in the Office of the President,” sigh the enthusiastic people’s deputies. But there is another explanation for this reaction: the party has become such an inconspicuous giant that few of the party members themselves believe that cosmetic changes to it will have any effect.
