Episode 127: Tonight the President of Ukraine will be Portrayed by Volodymyr Zelenskiy

Previously in Europe

Episode: Episode 127: Tonight the President of Ukraine will be Portrayed by Volodymyr Zelenskiy
Website: Previously in Europe
Feed URL: http://simplecast.com/podcasts/2120/rss
Duration: 01:00:27
Published: 2019-04-29 00:04

This week it's Finnish and Ukranian election coverage. Along with that we have speculations as we received results from Spain!

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Show Notes

Nonsense Section

Extinction fun times

So sort of nothing has happened (https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2019/apr/25/extinction-rebellion-assessing-the-impact) but it seems like the public is generally on their side. With the obvious exception of the UK's gross right wing press. All reports seem to suggest the police weren't even particularly upset, but the Express and Sun decided to focus on the "privileged backgrounds" and the mess/disruption the protests were causing...

Spaaaain

Another election... - Vox is getting in with a lot of seats - Socialists will come first but them plus Podemos won't be a majority so ???

https://www.euronews.com/2019/04/26/spain-election-2019-country-set-for-one-of-its-most-closely-contested-elections-in-decades?fromBreakingNews=1

Finnish parliamentary election

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2019_Finnish_parliamentary_election

##Results

101 seats to rule the 200 seat parliament
turnout: 68.7%

Social Democartic(S&D): 40 seats ^6
Finns (ECR): 39 seats ^1
National Coalition (EPP): 37 seats ^1
Centre (ALDE): 31 seats -18
Green League (G/EFA): 20 seats ^5
Left Alliance (GUE/NGL): 16 seats ^4
Swedish People's + Åland Coalition(ALDE): 10 seats ^0
Christian Democrat (EPP): 5 seats ^0
Movement Now (NI): 1 seat NEW

these parties gained a seat but got less of the vote than last time

##The run up

The government collapsed because of the Centre Party trying to push through a healthcare bill that everyone hated, after failing to pass it Centre leader and PM Sipilä resigned AND THEN WAS IMMEDIATELY MADE PM AGAIN in a care-taking roll.

Also before that in 2017 a leadership change in the Finns Party meant that the party split and spawned Blue Reform.

The three party coalition of Centre, National Coalition and Blue Reform (formerly Centre, National Coalition and the Finns) was fairly shaky and the healthcare cuts proved to be an issue.

##The Campaign

Oofa doofa. There was child sexual abuse scandal in the northern region of Oulu that resulted in a huge spike in support for the Finns Party, this criminal case has been noted as being the only ONGOING criminal case to be remarked upon by the press and politicians.

The election saw "an unusual level of aggression on the campaign trail".

In late March, a man struck Left Alliance candidate Suldaan Said Ahmed in the chest while calling him an infidel and pedophile a day after a man wearing logos of far-right anti-immigrant group Soldiers of Odin attempted to attack Foreign Minister Timo Soini of the Blue Party.

In lighter news: The Social Democratic party ran on a platform of raising taxes to fund the social welfare system (subtweeting at the Centre party).

Topic 1

Tonight the President of Ukraine will be Portrayed by Volodymyr Zelenskiy

Ukraine Presidential Election

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2019Ukrainianpresidentialelection

Now the coverage has turned to say Putin is shaking in his boots... sort of

He apparently refused to congratulate him on the election win (https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/ukraine-election-volodymyr-zelensky-putin-congratulate-comedian-a8881051.html)

Seemed to offer talks on normalizing relations (https://www.wsj.com/articles/putin-shows-carrot-and-stick-to-new-ukraine-leader-11556210091)

Aljazeera saying Russian state TV took one last jab at Poroshenko for losing but shouldn't celebrate https://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/russia-quick-celebrate-zelensky-victory-ukraine-190426092535517.html

Basically what if sure Russian helped Zelenskiy win in some way by shitting on the establishment... What if things get better? That's not good for Putin's grip on the Russian speaking world and his love of land grabbing when times get tough

It's been a week, where are our results?

Well there's been the whole passport thing. Putin offered Russian passports to Russian speaking Ukrainians in contested regions... Zelenskiy said Russians should instead be asking for Ukrainian passports because they have freedom of speech and what not

“We will provide Ukrainian citizenship to representatives of all peoples who suffer from authoritarian and corrupt regimes. In the first place — the Russians, who today suffer probably the most,”

Seems more like a idealistic younger leader who doesn't like the corrupt cesspit his country's political class were running. Maybe it won't come to anything but it's unclear how he's a Putin installation

https://www.dw.com/en/ukraines-president-elect-offers-citizenship-to-russians/a-48519397

https://www.politico.eu/article/ukrainian-president-elect-volodymyr-zelenskiy-rejects-vladimir-putin-passport-offer/

Zelensky is the choice of Putin?

This was a trending news story for a while:

Sure thing, the election being a mess might be a good thing for Putin (https://foreignpolicy.com/2019/03/29/ukraines-election-is-a-mess-and-thats-exactly-what-putin-wants-russia-nato-european-union-poroshenko-zelensky-tymoshenko/)

Also "dangerously pro Russian" based largely on Russia not being mentioned in his TV show...
https://foreignpolicy.com/2019/04/01/ukraines-tv-president-is-dangerously-pro-russian/

Zelensky is also in the pocket of an oligarch.. ?

Possibly - it's unclear. A lot of takes have it as a given that Ihor Kolomoisky (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IhorKolomoyskyi owner of the TV station his show aired on) is pulling the strings.

But they dispute this (https://www.reuters.com/article/us-ukraine-election-zelenskiy-oligarch/comedian-faces-scrutiny-over-oligarch-ties-in-ukraine-presidential-race-idUSKCN1RD30L) and again is it better to have a person who could go rogue or an actual corrupt oligarch..?

http://neweasterneurope.eu/2019/03/19/three-reasons-why-a-comedian-should-not-be-the-president-of-ukraine/

##Results

Turnout: 62.07%

Zelensky: 73.22%
Poroshenko: 24.45%

Poroshenko is reported to have tweeted that "a new inexperienced Ukrainian president... could be quickly returned to Russia's orbit of influence."

Zelensky's party is named after the TV show he was in. Of their few stated positions they support the free distribution of medical cannabis, free abortion in Ukraine, the legalization of prostitution and gambling in Ukraine and against the legalization of weapons.

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-48007487

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ServantofthePeople(political_party)