“Bread and Spectacles” from Bankova: Should we expect elections in Ukraine?

From time to time, the current government raises the issue of holding elections in Ukraine, applying the principle of “bread and spectacle.” The latest example is the statements of the head of the President’s Office, Andriy Yermak, about “the best president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy.”

This was stated on the air of “Pryamoy” by the head of the Committee of Voters of Ukraine, Oleksiy Koshel.

“There is such a very serious not just a sore, but a very serious disease, when during the war we return to the topic of elections again and again. We had several false starts in the election campaign. For example, in the fall of 2023, when we were seriously preparing for the elections in the spring of 2024. That is, we monitored all information messages, at least the election headquarters were working exactly, it was as if the work of the authorities had been transferred to such a pre-election regime, they spoke in the language of slogans,” recalls Koshel.

In addition, the expert adds, at the end of last year the current government also intensified preparations for the elections and began to “appease the electorate” with cash payments.

“The end of 2024, we saw the intensification of preparations for the elections. Actually, where did the “thousands of Zelensky” come from, where did the additional payments to teachers come from. Every month, a teacher has to thank his native authorities for paying him an additional thousand hryvnias. From September 1, two thousand. Again, additional payments to citizens who have reached the age of 18, an additional payment supposedly for the purchase of books. But all this together, all these tens of billions, they fell exclusively into the electoral logic, into the logic of the electoral process. Before the elections, to appease the electorate, to buy sympathy, to buy a certain more friendly attitude there,” explains the head of the CVU

“These technologies work. They have worked since the times of Ancient Rome, when the principle of “bread and spectacle” worked. They work in the same way now in Ukraine, in the United States, in other countries,” Koshel added.

According to him, such actions of the authorities have signs of a pre-election process, as evidenced in particular by the recent statements of the Head of the Office of the President of Ukraine Andriy Yermak about “the best president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy.”

“All this had signs of a pre-election process. But now, statements about the elections, praising the president are just overkill. Because we need to prepare for possible worst-case scenarios. On our agenda is the issue of 400 billion for the military, with which the government is somehow delaying, that is, working in the format of a propaganda machine. We are announcing it now, then we will prepare, then we will show all the wisdom and courage of the government, which will finally allocate these funds,” Oleksiy Koshel noted, emphasizing that in the current conditions, we need to prepare not for elections, but for the defense of the state.

In a recent interview with The Times, the head of the President’s Office, Andriy Yermak, said that Volodymyr Zelensky must run in the next elections because he is “the best president my country has seen in its years of independence.” Yermak called Zelensky a democrat and stressed that elections will be held in Ukraine as soon as it becomes possible.

Meanwhile, Yermak himself is increasingly becoming a source of irritation in Washington . This is confirmed by more than a dozen sources Politico among former and current US officials, as well as congressional aides. Some of the interlocutors describe Yermak as overly demanding, harsh in communication and poorly informed about domestic US politics. Some express concerns that he may have inaccurately conveyed Washington’s position to the Ukrainian leadership. One source characterized him as a “bipartisan irritant.”

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