Over the past few days, many analysts have been trying to understand what might be the point of the goverment reshuffle carried out by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in early September, and all have concluded that the most likely explanation is a ‘facelift’ in the cabinet.
Autumn will be critical and ’Ukraine needs to improve the work of the government in certain areas’, Zelenskyy said on 3 September. He also claimed that the government needed ’new energy’.
This reshuffle has not been the first one under the presidency of Zelenskyy and this one does not seem to be much different from the previous ones. The goal is nothing but an attempt to survive. And whose survival is it? First of all, it is about the political survival of Volodymyr Zelensky and Andriy Yermak, and only secondly about the survival of Ukraine.
What is obvious from the concept of the recent government reshuffle is that the most popular Ukrainian government official in the West, Olha Stefanishyna, has been promoted even higher up the ranks, as from now on she will become also justice minister while keeping her post as deputy prime minister for EU integration.
She has been appointed a top minister on whom the survival of the nation depends. She is responsible for the future. More specifically: she represents the vision of the future – the dream of Euro-Atlantic integration. The fate of the country is in her hands. As Ukrainians are increasingly suspicious of Andriy Yermak, the influential head of the Presidential Office – which also has a negative impact on Zelenskyy’s image, not to mention the growing suspicion in the West regarding Yermak as Kyiv’s chief negotiator -, an extra person had to be involved to improve popularity ratings.
At first glance, the recipe looks uncomplicated: the popularity of Stefanishyna, a young, beautiful, blonde woman, in the West provides the unwavering support that Zelenskyy needs above all. However, the situation is not really that simple. A woman was needed to provide a counterbalance both in the West and in Ukraine for the macho leaders of Ukraine. It is important to note that in Ukraine, where millions of men were lost during World War II, the image of women is quite different from that in the West. In Ukrainian society, women play a very important role.
The question arises whether Stefanishyna will cope with her new 2-in-1 role: top minister and Mother Ukraine. A new ’Wonder Woman’.
’I believe that my work in this role will finally help erase the athmosphere of false, mistaken perceptions of our country as one of inferior, corrupt and insecure officials’, she said in an interview with European Pravda on 6 September.
After all this, all that is left is to wish her good luck in her new job.
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