What are we to make of the resignation of Svyatoslav Vakarchuk, leader of the 19-member Voice party and lead singer of Okean Elzy, from the Ukrainian parliament?
Just a year ago, his campaign seemed likely to bring a pro-Western liberal party to the Verkhovna Rada, the kind that has never existed there before.
After a short but enthusiastic campaign leading to the parliamentary elections of 2019, the new party, Voice, received more than 5% of the popular vote and entered the parliament. My expectation was that Vakarchuk would become the Ukrainian liberal’s apparent leader and will lead Voice, the party he founded in 2019. On June 11, 2020, he announced his resignation from the parliament. Shortly prior to that he stepped down as the official leader of the party.
Voice’s first journey to the parliament has been both successful and stressful. They had barely managed to enter the parliament, as Servant of People, the other new party associated with President Volodymy Zelensky, whom many Ukrainian liberals viewed as populist and did not immediately recognize as their own, won in a landslide. The newly established Voice had to take a backseat and look for its own political niche. Back then, I was hoping they will become the first liberal party in the country.
I also hoped that Vakarchuk and Voice will offer a modest counterbalance to the ruling 247-member Servant of People that was set to be the sole governing party and to the old traditional groups formed around the oligarchs. “Our reform proposals will be braver and further-reaching than theirs,” promised then Vakarchuk.
Some of those hopes have materialized as the party is still establishing its political platform. But now, a year later, it seemed as if Vakarchuk in frustration, and unexpectedly, threw in the towel and called it quits, while the party has been lagging in the polls.
Trying to develop my own view on his resignation, I have reached Vakarchuk and asked him for a conversation. I myself quit the Ukrainian politics in 2016 and, in much frustration, returned to the West. I wondered if he and I may share some similar observations. The next day I found Vakarchuk at the offices of Voice.
The first thing you notice is that the office has simplistic interior design. It incorporates elegant functionality of a startup. “We are still at the beginning and now we are also led by a successful start-upper” they told me, referring to Kira Rudyk, who replaced Vakarchuk on March 11, 2019, as Voice’s leader and who is still to be tested as the party leader.
Before Vakarchuk appeared, I held a brief exchange with the party’s personnel. I was asked about my life after I quit politics. I told them that I have been developing a self-sovereign digital ID technology. That raised their interest and we spoke about its possible applications in combatting fake news and bringing more transparency to political processes. We compared this technology to Zelensky’s national ID initiative. I told them that that tech does not have the desired level of privacy, security and some other features, such as zero-knowledge-proof.
We then briefly spoke about Vakarchuk’s departure. “It’s an opportunity for everyone to step up,” Yarema Dukh, Voice’s media liaison said. “This is also our time to demonstrate that we are not a party of just one leader.”
Heading into the conversation, I heard from a number of people in Ukraine and abroad unhappiness about Vakarchuk’s departure. I also saw quite a bit of negative coverage from Voice’s political rivals celebrating it. Some were paraphrasing his songs to mock him.
That was a day off in Ukraine, but Vakarchuk was at the office. “I am with party,” he said. “And I am not quitting the politics.”
That required an explanation.
And so, we spoke for an hour or so. He was sitting under the black-and-white photograph of Winston Churchill. I was told Vakarchuk brought it in on the first day at the office. “Interesting choice,” I smiled. “I would probably have brought Vaclav Havel.”
“Havel lived at a certain time when his society was ready to make a change and unite around one leader. These are not our conditions. Our society is still going through a process that will define us as a nation for years to come. And this requires a different kind of leader and style of leadership,” responded Vakarchuk. We then cited our favorite Churchill’s quotes: “We go from defeat to defeat with enthusiasm,” he quipped.
I told him that his decision, to which I no longer wanted to refer as “departure,” has left many from the liberal camp disappointed as they seemingly had expected more from him.
“What does it mean to be liberal for you?” he asked me.
“In my view,” I said, “it’s a person who believes that government should be active in supporting social and political change. In the context of Ukraine, it is turning it into a pro-Western egalitarian democracy, with the rule of law, socially liberal and fiscally conservative.”
“I don’t go that far,” he said. “For me the first thing is our nation’s sovereignty and then comes the rule of law. For there is no rule of law without national sovereignty. On those other matters, like the economy, I let others speak — those who are experts. I pave the way for them.”
“Did you feel that you sacrificed your professional career when you moved to politics?” I asked, thinking of my own past career of a senior executive in London that I left for Ukraine in 2015.
“Not at all,” he said. “I may have changed my lifestyle, but music is not my profession or career that I can ever change or abandon. It’s who I am, it’s what defines me. I can’t give it away because it is what makes me, me. I, in fact, was writing down the ideas for songs in parliament. They populated in my head during the hardest of debates because the best songs are those that result from tension.”
“Was that tension and the smearing campaigns in media getting under your skin?” I asked.
“No, they have made me stronger. I have learnt not to pay much attention to them,” he responded as we continued the conversation.
Sasha Borovik: You have a very unusual background for a Ukrainian politician: your music, Stanford, extensive international traveling. I am not saying that our biographies are similar, but I had an unusual background for the Ukrainian politics when I came, and I have to admit I often felt quite lonely. Do you feel that at times?
Svyatoslav Vakarchuk: No, in Voice we have a very extraordinary group of people. Everyone is an established individual and together we may agree and debate, but I feel that we are all in this together and we have each other’s backs.
SB: How about the Ukrainian liberals, those who voted for you — don’t you feel that they gave you their votes on the Election Day and then checked out, leaving you on your own? Wouldn’t you stay in parliament if you felt stronger and more enthusiastic support from that camp?
SV: From our voters this was a fair game. This is how politics are. No, I left parliament because I felt that I got these new people united in Voice and brought them into politics. It is not obvious that any of them would get into parliament without me leading the party at the time. But now it is time for them to open their wings and fly. They know how now, and they also feel that I am here for them.
SB: How about being in politics — was that your cup of tea?
SV: I am still a Ukrainian politician. I am holding and will hold my political battles. Traditional politics are not exactly my cup of tea. There I found it is hard to be 100% honest all 100% of time. There is always some political maneuvering going on. On the personal level and as a musician I found that very challenging. Being outside of the parliament, being who I am, I can remain intellectually and politically honest.
SB: After quitting the Ukrainian politics, I felt like staying in the shower for hours. Do you have any negative emotions from this experience in the politics?
SV: I have noticed by some of your questions that you are harboring some bitter feelings from that experience. Please don’t. This is a marathon, not a sprint. There are many good things happening in the country and I hope you will find peace with yourself and find the way how you can contribute because everyone needs to.
Ending the conversation
I finished the conversation having to admit that I will be changing the theme for my article from what was initially intended. I expected to see a tired man who was feeling defeat. Instead I found a man who was relaxed and proud for what he has accomplished.
His opponents tried to humiliate him at his exit, but he shrugged that off and embraced himself for his new role in the party and in society. He has shared with me some of his plans for working with Ukrainian youth.
He entered Ukrainian politics on his own terms, and he left them on his own terms. Except that the news of his departure is overly exaggerated.
As a politician, Vakarchuk is a big-picture moral visionary with the intellectual power to navigate politics, attract the political talent and present his ideas to the public. He looks good in skinny jeans, which he made relevant in politics. Before he stepped down, his leadership in Voice was not contested — he just felt that he had to make that move. He also seems convinced that he may have a stronger impact by leaving the parliament and preserving his moral authority. His stepping down from parliament now will be judged by his future impact and what his party will achieve going forward.
Voice is still looking for its path. There were no policy or doctrinal debates at its formation. By adopting the Ukrainian modern nationalism as its main doctrine, the party may have been mixing borders too much with other parties in the parliament.
Voice is still to find its liberal identity. If the party cares about winning, it needs to learn how to become a truly national party, how to stay honest while outmaneuvering its opponents and determine who its voters are. It will also need to go beyond the nationalism agenda, for there is no sovereignty without the strong economy either.
A demographic wave and new generations of Ukrainians —long-building, still-building — would carry the party to victories, and liberalism to generational advantage. The wave is inevitable, unstoppable. It would not peak for many years and there would be losses in elections, including in municipalities outside major cities.
Many liberal parties around the world find themselves at times leaderless and loud. Elected politicians often restructure their electoral calculus to avoid getting on its wrong side.
Vakarchuk does not need to use that calculus anymore. He can continue being honest. I hope Voice will unite around a leader or leaders, and as long as those leaders are honest, principled, and courageous they will project the political authority. Together they should run for office, win important posts, combat the corruption that cripples Ukraine, appoint new judges, and do things that demonstrate that this new liberal class is taking full responsibility for the future of the country.
Sasha Borovik is a Munich-based attorney and technology entrepreneur. He served as first deputy minister of the economy and deputy governor of Odesa Oblast in 2015. Ann-Kristin Leo and Nick Mason contributed to this article.
