Rebecca Harms on What the EU Expects from Ukraine's Presidential Elections

Hromadske spoke to the member of European Parliament Rebecca Harms. She believes European officials are relieved that there was a free election. It is important that the vector of war and occupation, as well as other problems in the country,  did not come to the fore. There was a competitive process - with flaws - but competitive, nonetheless.

We understand that people, who vote in favor of [Volodymyr] Zelenskiy are not knowing what they are voting for. This also comes as a surprise to us that an unknown candidate has big chances for such a very important position.

Harms also thinks that "the old political class is no longer associated with hope in the minds of Ukrainians, but rather  with new mistrust." She encourages both candidates to offer their programs to the people in full so that Ukrainians know what the candidates' priorities are and how they hope to solve issues of poverty, war, and occupation among others.

These are questions which have to be answered more by the candidate Zelenskiy. I would say, for us, the attitude of president Petro Poroshenko is clear, but I would also say that in his campaign he very much focused on general issues like war, language, and church. Obviously, Poroshenko also did not meet what the majority of Ukrainians expected.