Andreas Gross: “A democratic citizen cannot be neutral”

Andreas Gross, head of the PACE observers delegation to Ukraine and Chairman of the PACE Social Democratic Group, told The Ukrainian Week about the developments following his previous interview.

Face Control

When yet another acquaintance of mine asked me, for the fourth time this week, why I am not running for a seat in parliament, I had to stop and think. Is the career of a politician so attractive in the view of so many people that it is worth abandoning your profession (which you may happen to love), competence, previously acquired practical experience, an established mode of life and, finally, your circle of friends? (The milieu of which inevitably changes in the upper stratosphere.)

How Information Society Can Drive Democratic Change in Ukraine

European institutions should make building an information society in Ukraine one of the priorities of Ukrainian-European cooperation.

Fata Morgana of Western Europe

After the catastrophe of the First World War, social democratic forces in Western Europe that previously existed there experienced a radical transformation under the influence of the Russian Bolsheviks.

The First Step

Things will be the same for a long time to come. Nothing will change, because no one really wants any changes. Most people simply need things to stay as they are

Is European Culture a Fantasy?

Is European culture a fantasy? Is it more or less so than European politics? These are the questions that cross my mind over and over again when I try to think of how to reverse the ongoing tragedy of the EU – namely, its silent and slow demise, which is a fact of reality, to my dismay.

Criminals in Politics

Politics has always been about a watershed between legitimate and illegitimate figures in power

Voting Wrong…

Finally, someone has uttered the sacramental words I have been waiting for so long. “This country needs censored democracy” a leading Ukrainian economist said in an interview. Below, I will explain what “censored democracy” is, but now I sadly admit: after a good laugh at sarcastic appeals for grandchildren to hide their grannies’ passports to keep them from voting in elections or posters of an old woman saying that her cat will inherit her house after she found out that her grandson voted for the Party of Regions, the public and some opinion leaders have begun to think that democracy, as it is, does not work in Ukraine.

Who Really Controls the Donbas?

In their struggle for power, Ukraine’s oligarchs formed a fraternity of common political interests, joining forces rather than promoting personal ambitions. Once the ultimate political goal was reached, their egoistic motivations became the priority.

Language Myths in Eastern and Southern Ukraine

In the minds of Ukraine’s leadership and entire political class sits a deep conviction that eastern and southern Ukraine does not understand or accept Ukrainian and that the language irks and outrages everyone there, meaning it is better to not even speak it in those regions.