Wakeboarder, wrestler, dentist: novices of Ukraine's new ruling party take over parliament

Record ID: 1429159

  • Title: Wakeboarder, wrestler, dentist: novices of Ukraine's new ruling party take over parliament
  • Date: 29th August 2019
  • Summary: LAWMAKERS SINGING ANTHEM NALOTOV SINGING NATIONAL ANTHEM
  • Embargoed: 12th September 2019 14:52
  • Keywords: instructor new MP extreme sports Ukraine Servant of the People wakeboarder political novice president Volodymyr Zelenskiy parliament Dmytro Nalotov new lawmaker
  • Location: KIEV, UKRAINE
  • City: KIEV, UKRAINE
  • Country: Ukraine
  • Topics: Lawmaking,Government/Politics
  • Reuters ID: LVA006AU9SU2V
  • Aspect Ratio: 16:9
  • Story Text: A wakeboarder, a wrestler and a dentist were among 254 lawmakers from President Volodymyr Zelenskiy's party who took up their seats as the new majority in the Ukrainian parliament on Thursday (August 29) - not one of whom has ever worked there before.
    Zelenskiy, himself a former comedian, recruited fellow political novices to run as candidates for his Servant of the People party, which won an outright majority in the 450-seat parliament in July.
    "It's like standing in front of a ski slope, in front of something unknown," said lawmaker Dmytro Nalotov, 34, who used to make his living in extreme sports as a wakeboarder, mountain biker and snowboard instructor.
    "I am a new person in this field and I don't know what I will face. According to rumours, there are many risky moments, so of course there are similarities."
    He won his parliamentary seat by beating a former mayor and a lawmaker by a huge margin in Poltava in central Ukraine.
    "A new era of the people's deputies representing ordinary people has begun now, (of the MPs) who live together with ordinary people and do things for ordinary people," he said after the ceremonial first meeting of the new parliament.
    Other new lawmakers include a dentist, a primary school teacher, a wedding photographer, several previously unemployed people, an interior designer, and a wrestler.
    Zelenskiy, who came to fame in a TV sitcom playing the part of a schoolteacher who becomes president, defeated incumbent Petro Poroshenko in a landslide presidential election earlier this year.
    He immediately called a parliamentary election to replace a chamber dominated by Poroshenko's supporters. His new party's outright majority makes Zelenskiy the first president in Ukraine's 28-year independent history not to need a coalition to form a cabinet.
    Expectations that Zelenskiy and his party can deliver change fast are running high.
    In particular, many Ukrainians hope he can make real progress fighting corruption and bring peace to the east, where more than 13,000 people have already been killed in a five-year conflict with Russian-backed separatists.
    According to an August survey, the number of Ukrainians who believe that the country's current difficulties will be overcome in the next few years has risen to 48 percent from just 17 percent in 2016.
    Analysts say a failure to deliver quick changes could hurt Zelenskiy's rating and that of his party, but Nalotov says he is confident of a positive result even if it takes longer than people expect.
    (Production: Serhiy Takhmazov, Margaryta Chornokondratenko, Maria Stromova)
  • Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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