Ruling party cohesion crumbles, deputy chair warns
Andriy Motovilovets (Photo: Servant of the People press service)
About 40 MPs from the ruling Servant
of the People party are ready to resign, and the party struggles to marshal
votes for key bills, deputy party chair Andriy Motovilovets told Forbes Ukraine
on March 13.
Motovilovets said whipping votes has been unreliable since the start of the year. He warned that passing laws required by major donors, including the International Monetary Fund and the European Union, is becoming effectively impossible. As an example, he cited a digital platforms tax bill that received only 168 votes of the 226 required to pass.
He said the main reason is fear among MPs of anti-corruption agencies. This year alone, five lawmakers have been charged by the National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine (NABU) and Specialized Anti-Corruption Prosecutor's Office (SAPO) on bribery charges. That fear, he added, has spread to other lawmakers, some of whom have already been questioned as witnesses.
“The key problem is the Servant of the People faction has lost its core,” said Motovilovets.
“When I gather votes in parliament, I know which MPs will definitely support a given law. Previously I could count on 180 MPs from Servant of the People. Now the faction’s core consists of 111 MPs.”
He said the situation worsened after the July 2025 attempt to abolish the independence of NABU and SAPO. That reform bill was quickly repealed, but the lawmakers who supported it in the first place faced harsh criticism from the Ukrainian public and international organizations.
“The situation is such that we cannot vote [to pass] our [international] obligations,” he added.
Motovilovets knows about 40 MPs who want to submit
resignation letters but warned them they will not be accepted. “The parliament
must work,” he concluded.
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