"Servant of the People" in the popularity rating of Ukrainian parties dropped from second to fourth place.
This is evidenced by the survey data of the Kiev International Institute of Sociology (KIIS).
As stated in the study, if the elections to the Verkhovna Rada were held in the second half of January, then 11.2% of the respondents who decided on their choice would vote for the pro-presidential party.
The first place would be taken by the "Opposition Platform - For Life" (OLE) with 20.7%, the second - "European Solidarity" by Petro Poroshenko with 15.3%, the third - "Batkivshchyna" by Yulia Tymoshenko with 12.6%.
At the same time, in December, Servant of the People was supported by 20.9%, HLS - 23.1%, Evrosolidarnost - 14.1%, Batkivshchyna - 9.8%.
According to the KIIS, OLE is mainly supported by citizens living in the eastern and southern regions, including the Donbass.
"Eurosolidarity" and "Batkivshchyna" are popular mostly in the western regions.
Rating by tariff
Despite the drop in the Servant of the People rating, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky remains the country's most popular statesman.
According to the January poll of the KIIS, if the elections were held in January, 19.8% of Ukrainians who decided on their choice would vote for it.
At the same time, 15.7% are ready to support Petro Poroshenko, 11.8%, Yulia Tymoshenko, 11%, co-chairman of the HLE, Yuri Boyko, and 7.5%, the head of the political council of the HLE, Viktor Medvedchuk.
Compared to December's figures, Zelenskiy lost the support of more than 7% of respondents.
Experts interviewed by RT consider it logical that the rating of the president and his party, which has a mono-majority in the Verkhovna Rada, has dropped significantly.
Protest against the increase in tariffs in Ukraine
RIA News
One of the key factors behind the winter decline in the popularity of Zelensky and Servant of the People, analysts called the situation with energy prices, which have been consistently rising since the summer of 2020.
So, in June last year, Ukrainians paid 2.78 hryvnia per cubic meter of gas, but as a result of constant increases by January 2021, suppliers set prices in the range from 6.99 to 10.8 hryvnia per cubic meter.
Such a sharp rise in the price of blue fuel provoked mass demonstrations in different regions of Ukraine, which the media and the people called the "tariff Maidan".
After that, in mid-January, Zelensky and Ukrainian Prime Minister Denis Shmygal announced an excessively high price for gas for the population.
As a result, it was decided to set the maximum bar at 6.99 hryvnia per cubic meter of blue fuel.
At the same time, the leadership of Ukraine stressed that the use of the instrument of state regulation of tariffs contradicts the country's strategic course towards market development.
According to Zelensky and Shmygal, state intervention is temporary.
The OLEZ accused the Ukrainian authorities of price manipulation, noting that as a result, the country's population will not pay less for energy consumption.
According to Medvedchuk, on average in Ukraine, taking into account the distribution tariff, the final cost of a cubic meter of gas will amount to 8.81 hryvnia.
According to experts, the announcement of Zelensky and the government to cut gas prices did not help to calm the protest moods.
Last weekend, citizens, dissatisfied with the tariff policy of the authorities, continued to hold rallies, block roads, picket and storm administrative buildings.
One of the protests took place near the Zelensky state dacha in the Koncha-Zaspa area (Kiev).
"Dissatisfaction with the ruling elite of Ukraine will only intensify, since it does not offer a systematic solution to the problem of rising tariffs and is, in fact, pursuing a course towards their further increase," Igor Shishkin, an expert from the Institute of CIS Countries, said in an interview with RT.
In a commentary on RT, Ruslan Bortnik, director of the Ukrainian Institute for Policy Analysis and Management, also noted that the topic of tariffs is key on the agenda of Ukrainian politics.
“Zelensky himself promised to cut tariffs by half a year and a half ago.
This greatly increased his popularity.
Naturally, those who voted for Zelensky and his party were extremely critical of the rise in prices for gas and housing and communal services.
These are very sensitive issues for every Ukrainian, ”Bortnik stated.
Polling station in Ukraine
Reuters
© Valentyn Ogirenko
Broken promises
According to Shishkin, another reason for the decline in the popularity of Zelensky and "Servant of the People" is the lack of progress towards a peaceful settlement of the conflict in Donbass and the normalization of relations with Russia.
According to the political scientist, a significant part of the population expected serious positive changes in these areas from the president.
However, the Ukrainian leadership took a course towards revising the Minsk Agreements, continued a discriminatory policy against Russian-speaking citizens and refused to restore economic ties with the Russian Federation destroyed under Poroshenko.
"It is not surprising that the failure in Donbass and in relations with Moscow has pulled a considerable number of voters of Zelensky and Servant of the People to the side of the OLE and its leaders, who are demonstrating their readiness to maintain civilized relations with Russia," Shishkin said.
As a reminder, OPSZ is in favor of concluding direct contracts with Gazprom in order to reduce tariffs for blue fuel.
Also, the Boyko-Medvedchuk party insists on the deployment of the Sputnik V vaccine production on the territory of Ukraine, the implementation of Minsk-2 and the launch of a direct dialogue with the self-proclaimed republics.
Shishkin stressed that the absence of normal political relations with Moscow has a negative impact on the Ukrainian economy.
Due to the loss of the Russian market, the Ukrainian industry is experiencing enormous difficulties, business activity has decreased, and the standard of living of the population has decreased.
At the same time, the expert does not expect that the growing popularity of HLE will lead to a change of power in Ukraine.
According to Shishkin, the real government of the country is carried out from Washington, which is interested in preserving the anti-Russian regime in Kiev.
Ruslan Bortnik evaluates the phenomenon of a jumped HLE rating somewhat differently.
In an interview with RT, he expressed the opinion that in the difficult socio-economic situation, the camp of supporters of the Opposition Platform experienced an influx of citizens with left-wing views.
“If we take into account the result of the PLO in the 2019 elections (13% -
RT
), then its electorate has grown by more than seven percentage points.
These are the people who voted for the "Servant of the People" and were in the left wing of this project.
We see that now OLE has become a leader, and the aggregate rating of Boyko and Medvedchuk is already comparable to that of Zelensky, ”says Bortnik.
Yuri Boyko and Viktor Medvedchuk lay flowers at the Eternal Flame in Kiev
RIA News
According to the expert, against the background of disappointment with the policy of the president and the parliamentary mono-majority, the "right wing" of the Servant of the People voters migrated to the European Solidarity electorate.
It is this factor, according to Bortnik, that explains the rise in the rating of Petro Poroshenko's party.
“People who became disillusioned with Servant of the People began to support either the left or the right political forces.
The left wing of Ukrainian politics is represented by the HLS, the right wing is represented by European Solidarity, added Bortnik.
Experts interviewed by RT agree that the main reason for the decline in the popularity of Zelensky and his party is sabotaging the fulfillment of election promises.
In this regard, political analysts predict a further increase in the popularity of the opposition in the person of the OLL and Eurosolidarity, as well as their leaders.
“Zelenskiy has not yet been able to deliver on any of his key promises.
Today he is looking for a balance to retain power, but has largely abandoned his electoral program.
Zelenskiy is an insufficiently professional president with an extremely weak team.
I think that during 2021 it will lose its leading position in the ranking, ”Bortnik concluded.