To better understand Volodymyr Zelensky, and to prepare for his possible presidency of Ukraine, German Chancellor Angela Merkel may have undertaken some unusual research, according to Ukraine’s Foreign Minister Pavlo Klimkin.
He says that Merkel has watched a super-cut from “Servant of the People,” the popular TV comedy with an anti-establishment slant, in which Zelensky played a reformist, fictional president of Ukraine. He was elected as the actual president on April 21.
“When the dynamics of Zelensky’s rating became clear, even for the Chancellor of Germany Angela Merkel, her team made a cut of several episodes from the series for her to watch,” Klimkin told the Ukrinform news agency in an interview published on July 29.
Klimkin said that several ministers of foreign affairs had also watched the series and then asked his opinion of them. He did not specify the names, because he hadn’t asked for their permission, he said.
The “Servant of the People” series tells the story of a school history teacher Vasyl Goloborodko, played by Zelensky, who accidentally gets elected the President of Ukraine. Goloborodko then tangles with the country’s political elites, which are controlled by the oligarchs.
The promotional videos for the series show comedic and exaggerated scenes of this struggle against the establishment, including one where Goloborodko shoots at the members of parliament with semi-automatic weapons, or where lawmakers try to applaud but have had their hands cut off for stealing.
Promotional videos for the third season of the series were broadcasted in the run-up to the presidential election online and at the 1+1 TV channel, owned by the Ukrainian oligarch Igor Kolomoisky. Netflix also distributed the series on its TV-on-demand platform. 95 Kvartal, a company co-owned by Zelensky, produced the series.
Zelensky named his party after the series. At the parliamentary elections on July 21, “Servant of the People” party took 254 out of 424 seats in the next parliament, giving it a single-party majority, unprecedented in modern Ukrainian history.
