{"id":1376615,"date":"2026-04-01T12:07:35","date_gmt":"2026-04-01T09:07:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/prm.ua\/don-t-rock-the-boat-why-ukrainian-politics-has-turned-into-tiktok\/"},"modified":"2026-04-01T12:07:35","modified_gmt":"2026-04-01T09:07:35","slug":"don-t-rock-the-boat-why-ukrainian-politics-has-turned-into-tiktok","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/prm.ua\/en\/don-t-rock-the-boat-why-ukrainian-politics-has-turned-into-tiktok\/","title":{"rendered":"\u201cDon\u2019t Rock the Boat\u201d: Why Ukrainian Politics Has Turned into TikTok"},"content":{"rendered":"

Source: Author’s Facebook<\/a> page<\/em><\/p>\n

In the eighth year of Volodymyr Zelensky’s five-year term, something strange suddenly became clear: “new faces” are aging faster than the old system. Yesterday, the state was sold to us as a startup, and today it is a franchise with an expired license agreement.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Do you remember the meme “the end of the era of poverty”? Well, the era is over – poverty remains. “Spring will come – we will plant”? Spring has come, but all they planted was trust. “The state in a smartphone”? Yes, but the “update system” button does not work, and “remove bugs” – only in presentations.<\/p>\n

They say you can’t compare. They say, not Viktor Yanukovych, not Viktor Orban. Of course. Because the classics of the genre at least had an ideology. Here – pure functionality: power as a service of self-preservation.<\/p>\n

Balint Magyar, a Hungarian sociologist and former Minister of Human Resources of Hungary, described Orb\u00e1n’s state as a “mafia state” – this is when institutions are not eliminated, but tamed. Here they were not just tamed – they were transferred to the regime of “quiet coexistence”. The parliament votes, the courts exist, the media speak – but decisions are made where there are not even signs. Political Airbnb: formally someone else’s apartment, but their own live there.<\/p>\n\t\t