President of Ukraine Vladimir Zelensky signed a bill to abolish parliamentary immunity. Relevant information was published on the website of the Ukrainian parliament. The text of the message indicates that the document "returned with the signature of the president."
Earlier, the Verkhovna Rada approved the amendments: on September 3, they were supported by 373 deputies with the required 300 votes. The changes will officially take effect on January 1, 2020.
They decided to abstain from voting in the party “Opposition platform - For life”, the fraction of which is the second largest after the ruling. From the point of view of representatives of this political force, it is really necessary to remove immunity, but not only from those who belong to the legislative branch of government, but also from the president.
It is worth noting that the elimination of deputy "immunity" was one of the main election promises of Zelensky
The draft law that Zelensky signed today was submitted to the Rada back in 2017 by his predecessor, Petro Poroshenko. According to that version of the document, the 80th article of the basic law was to be adjusted. It was proposed to remove the wording that “deputies of Ukraine are guaranteed parliamentary immunity” and “deputies of Ukraine cannot be prosecuted, detained or arrested without the consent of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine”.
The new edition is as follows: “People’s deputies of Ukraine are not legally liable for the results of voting or statements in parliament and its bodies, with the exception of liability for insult or slander.”
- Ex-President of Ukraine Petro Poroshenko
- globallookpress.com
- © Sergii Kharchenko / ZUMAPRESS.com
After changing the wording, the Rada sent the bill for review to the Constitutional Court, which in June 2018 recognized it as complying with the main law. At the same time, Poroshenko urged parliamentarians not to delay the adoption of the document, but this was not done before the end of his presidential term. By the way, at a recent vote, he, now becoming a deputy, was among those who supported the abolition of immunity.
“No more than PR”
However, according to RT sources in Ukrainian political circles, after the abolition of immunity in practice, little will change for deputies, since there are other ways to avoid responsibility in the country.
“In fact, a statement on the abolition of parliamentary immunity is nothing more than a PR,” said an interlocutor of RT from the Fatherland party. - Everyone knows perfectly well that in Ukraine, without this, responsibility can be easily avoided. Did any of the wealthy citizens answer before the law? The same thing will happen with the deputies. ”
This point of view is shared by the source of RT in the presidential party “Servant of the people”.
“Voters heard that immunity was canceled. No one understood the details and conditions. Zelensky is important picture, not the essence of the process. The main thing is that everyone is happy, ”said the deputy.
Ruslan Bortnik, director of the Ukrainian Institute for Policy Analysis and Management, expressed a similar opinion in an interview with RT. According to him, immunity was removed from individual deputies earlier, but this ultimately did not lead to anything.
“Previously, immunity was removed from deputies, but law enforcement agencies have never taken advantage of this and have not condemned any of them. Obviously, the problem is not in this law, but in the quality of the work of law enforcement agencies and the judicial system of Ukraine, ”said Bortnik.
The expert called Zelensky’s decision “an attempt to play in public,” because among the Ukrainian population the idea of abolishing parliamentary immunity is very popular.
“This law is a PR, the fulfillment of Zelensky’s election promise, which will give him extra points in the eyes of society, since the Ukrainians demonized the deputies in parliament and want to take revenge on them, despite the fact that the presidential administration, the government and recently international organizations, ”says the expert.
In an interview with RT, legislative initiative was called populism by Vladimir Shapovalov, deputy director of the Institute of History and Politics of Moscow State Pedagogical University.
“This is a pronounced populism of the current authorities. To increase the rating, Zelensky demonstrates to voters that the winning party seeks to protect the interests of the people and oppose the representatives of the political elite, ”the political scientist believes.
"Mechanisms for blackmail"
At the same time, experts agree that the Rada adopted and signed by the president will weaken the positions of deputies and, on the contrary, will strengthen the position of the head of state, which controls the power block of the government.
“This law will allow Zelensky to control not only the parliament, but also his faction. Deputies will lose their freedom to independently express their position and will become more loyal to the president, who controls all the security forces who can start investigating the people's deputies, ”said Bortnik.
A similar point of view is shared by Vladimir Shapovalov.
“Depriving deputies of parliamentary immunity creates quite easy mechanisms for blackmailing and pressure on representatives of the opposition and, obviously, this will be used to the full. However, this is a dual-use weapon that can be used both against representatives of the opposition and against its own deputies, which, respectively, can also be in a situation of blackmail and pressure from the president. This is done so that those “random” people who were elected by party lists and by districts do not lose their loyalty to the president, ”Shapovalov suggested.
In turn, Ruslan Bortnik emphasized that this and some other Zelensky's initiatives lead to a real change in the form of government in the country.
“This law is just part of the puzzle. Zelensky deprives deputies of immunity, proposes to reduce the number of deputies from 450 to 300, to consolidate the majority electoral system, and thus weaken the ties of deputies with society. These ideas, if taken separately, are correct, but overall they weaken the parliament and parliamentarians. In addition, the president subjugates the national guard, officially secures to himself those unconstitutional powers to create regulatory structures with respect to the LPR and the DPR that Peter Poroshenko possessed. Thus Zelensky only strengthens his position, ”he said.
“Not consistent with international experience”
Note that parliamentary immunity exists in many countries of the world. Its main goal is to protect parliamentarians from repressive measures on the part of the executive branch or private individuals, which could prevent them from freely performing their duties.
As a rule, immunity provides for a ban on the arrest or prosecution of a deputy without the appropriate permission of the parliament. Approximately in this edition, the law on immunity is valid in France. There, deputies cannot be held accountable for the actions they take in the course of their professional activities. This provision applies to libelous statements that may come from them.
Also, for their detention or arrest in cases not related to direct work, permission of the parliament is required. An exception is made only when the deputy was caught at the crime scene.
Similar laws have been passed in Germany, Italy, Spain, Greece and Brazil. In the United States, there are also measures designed to protect congressmen from persecution by the executive. Russian parliamentarians also enjoy immunity.
According to analysts, the Ukrainian initiative runs counter to the experience of most major democracies.
“This law does not comply with the norms and principles of the existence of a democratic state. Not a single large democratic country has such a practice.
There is a history and traditions of parliamentarism, the essence of which is that a deputy must have immunity in order to be able to defend himself from opponents in political discussions. This is one of the fundamental rights that protects representatives of the parliamentary opposition from persecution by the ruling political force, ”said Shapovalov.
Recall that over the past 15 years in Ukraine, constitutional amendments have been made seven times. Moreover, in some cases, they consisted in the cancellation of previously made changes. Experts do not exclude that this bill may suffer the same fate in the future.
“This amendment will be sooner or later canceled, because it does not correspond to the world experience of parliamentary construction. Most likely, before Ukraine returns to normal parliamentary practices, Zelensky will have time to solve the technological problems and specific goals that he set for himself, ”Shapovalov summed up.