President's Office explained that Zelensky has several tools to return CCU situation to a normal course
photo: the Office of the President
President Volodymyr Zelenskyi has several tools that will allow the conflict situation created by the recent decisions of the Constitutional Court to return to normal.
The adviser to the Head of the President's Office Mykhailo Podoliak announced this in a comment to Ukrinform.
According to him, "the latest decisions of the Constitutional Court are, to put it mildly, surprising. These are not just individual challenges to public consensus in terms of income declaration. Rather, we must say that the Constitutional Court has decided to revise the new social contract in the country on its own, which provides for zero tolerance for any non-transparent formats in public administration. And they want to take us back to the old days when top corruption dominated the state."
Implicitly, as the adviser to the head of the Office of the President notes, "no one expected that the court, which should be a kind of symbol of new system's inviolability, would suddenly turn into an aggressive political player in a matter of days. However, President Zelenskyi has several tools that will allow the conflict situation to return to normal."
Among them, Podoliak mentioned "a special meeting of the National Security and Defense Council, which may well give a proper political and legal assessment of the Constitutional Court's position. With the development of further recommendations to all executive bodies. A tougher tool is a special hearing of the Verkhovna Rada, where the judges of the Constitutional Court will have to explain their motivation … "
President Volodymyr Zelenskyi called an urgent closed session of the National Security and Defense Council to determine measures for the immediate proper response of the state to new threats and challenges to national security and defense.
According to Podoliak, yesterday Zelensky "literally demanded from the court representatives to explain clearly what guided them when making such a controversial decision. Why these decisions, especially regarding the mandatory income declaration by high-ranking officials, deliver a significant blow to our entire anti-corruption country architecture and put us in an ambiguous position in the international arena.
The further development of events depends on the definite answer of the Constitutional Court judges whether the escalation will continue or the crisis will be resolved quickly and effectively, the adviser to the OP head noted.
We remind that in the ruling from October 27, the Constitutional Court specified that criminal liability for false declaration is "excessive punishment."
On October 27, the Constitutional Court repealed Art. 366-1 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine on criminal liability for entering inaccurate data in the declaration, and also declared the powers of the NAPC to control and verify declarations, their round-the-clock access to the register of declarations, and lifestyle monitoring unconstitutional.
The NAPC stated that the judges made the relevant decision in their own interests. According to the anti-corruption agency, two members of the CCU entered inaccurate data in their declarations and are now probably trying to avoid responsibility.
In turn, the Constitutional Court stated about "constant pressure" from anti-corruption bodies.
