On September 21 night, the Ukrainians were able to compare their president’s answers to Ukrainian TV journalists’ questions and his speeches in the legislatures of Canada and the US. Form and content clearly differed.
“Has the president’s interview reassured you?” was the question posed by The Day’s editor-in-chief Larysa Ivshyna on Facebook. The answers varied, but negative assessments predominated:
“No, it has not! On the contrary, it has prompted bad premonitions...,” Leonid Pylypiuk wrote.
“From his gestures and tone, the president himself was far from calm,” Vladimir Makienko answered.
“I have become even more worried, for it is now clear that Petro Poroshenko hopes to play by the rules of the game that have been cancelled in our region,” Olha Len posted.
“Poroshenko is paradoxically ambivalent: self-confident and confident in his actions overseas, but annoyed and unconvincing in communicating with his chosen Ukrainian journalists...,” Oleksandr Sergiev responded.
By the way, a good job done by his speechwriters was evident during Poroshenko’s inaugural speech as well. However, then, and even more so now, people were and are waiting for him to take action inside the country. The main advantage of the president in the current difficult circumstances is the support of his own people. Therefore, lack of reforms and uncorrected errors have been gradually destroying the great carte blanche and support bestowed by the public on Poroshenko during the presidential election.
Experts view the president’s personnel policy as a major issue. Objectively, officials are appointed and go about their work by the rules of the old system. For example, how secretiveness of the current Head of the Presidential Administration Borys Lozhkin is any different from similar practices espoused by his counterpart of Viktor Yanukovych’s time Serhii Liovochkin? It seems that the new government simply does not believe that they can do things differently.
