Exchange injections

The debate of presidential candidates ended. The second round of elections of the President of Ukraine, in which Vladimir Zelensky and Petro Poroshenko will take part, will be held on April 21.

The vice-president and head of the Ukrainian bureau of the Center for Political Technology Foundation Georgy Lvovich Chizhov told Polit.ru about how the debate passed.

I think that those who did not watch the debate have not lost a lot. In principle, these debates did not shock. They did not become a new example of Ukrainian political culture, and did not become a competition in substantial matters. We never understood what Vladimir Zelensky is like, what his priorities are and what his views are. The opponents actually exchanged injections, and choosing the well -known weaknesses of each other as goals.

Poroshenko spoke about the incompetence of Zelensky and hinted at certain dark spots in his past. Zelensky spoke of the president’s unfulfilled promises that he had not planted his friends. Rather, he did not plant, and did not chop off his hands, as Poroshenko once said in a flash. He said that Ukrainians live poorly enough. In response, Poroshenko again accused Zelensky of incompetence, said that the president would not cut his hands.

Zelensky accused Poroshenko of connecting with the elite. In response, he said that Zelensky was not a national candidate at all, that he himself may be a good person, but serves the interests of the oligarchs, led by Kolomoisky. In general, such an exchange:

- You are an oligarch!

- No, you are a conductor of the interests of the oligarchs!

This, probably, was worth expecting. The plus was that they nevertheless reached this stage and talked, albeit on the verge of correctness, but still talked. Speaking about the debate, it is customary to talk about the winners, but here I do not see a clear winner. Poroshenko, I think, looked more convincing. He moved easier from domestic blanks, Zelensky basically joked and gave out ready -made reprisals. And when he had to tie these ready -made reprisals, he usually switched into Russian. But the fact that he does not quite perfectly speak the Ukrainian language, and so is known. Nevertheless, he was not defeated and shared. That is, he completed the most important task, he nevertheless went to the debate, and if he lost, then on points.

Given the indusion that sociology gives it is unlikely to seriously affect the final result. Zelensky kept quite in his style. And moreover, if at first he allowed himself a few incorrect attacks, then he still entered the frame of the discussion. It can be assumed that those who supported Zelensky remained with their opinion that he was well done.

The discussion of these debates lasted for all three weeks in front of the second round. And therefore, these debates seemed to become the central theme of the campaign in front of the second round. But at the same time, they did not shocked in anything meaningfully, nor on the campaign’s course they hardly had a truly strong influence. Tactically, I think this is the victory of the Zelensky team. Poroshenko, who had nothing to lose, hoped for these debates and grabbed them like a straw to turn the situation. And the Zelensky team, on the contrary, pulled them on the very eve of the second round. So that these debates, which, frankly, they had little chance of winning, did not affect the current positions of the candidates. And, in general, they succeeded.