Volodymyr Zelensky’s electoral campaign started long before he registered as a presidential candidate. Starting from 2015, the Kolomoisky-owned TV channel “1+1” began a campaign to discredit the authorities. Unlike during Yanukovych’s time, when journalists explained bad news with objective circumstances or mistakes by local officials, now the country’s problems were more often attributed to mistakes or poor performance of the central government— the government, deputies, and the president.
An important role in discrediting Zelensky’s main competitor was played by the entertainment show “Evening Kvartal”. It aired every Saturday evening and always had high ratings. Before the 2019 presidential election, the premiere shows of “Evening Kvartal” were watched by 17.5% of the Ukrainian TV audience, several million viewers.
It is interesting to compare how Zelensky’s show parodied presidents Yanukovych and Poroshenko during the times they both held the highest office in the country. Yanukovych was portrayed by the comedians of “Evening Kvartal” mainly as an uneducated man “from the people”, who sometimes reads poorly or does not know something. In contrast, Poroshenko was depicted as an alcoholic and a corrupt official. The difference is not so hard to understand. If an illiterate person can evoke sympathy from the viewers, then a corrupt official, stealing the people’s money, only evokes negative emotions.
Alongside discrediting Poroshenko, which lasted on “1+1” almost until the election day, political technologists started a PR campaign for Zelensky as a future candidate. A key role here was played by the TV series “Servant of the People”. Volodymyr Zelensky portrayed an honest and poor history teacher who rides a bicycle and eventually becomes the President of Ukraine.
In any other country, such a series might have remained just a popular TV product, like, for example, “Game of Thrones”, “The Walking Dead”, or any other. But it’s important to consider the specificity of the Ukrainian media market. By 2017, there was already an apparent consensus among oligarchs, who agreed with Kolomoisky’s proposal to promote the television comedian Zelensky for president. Therefore, instead of leaving him in the realm of variety satire, journalists of oligarchic channels raced to discuss Volodymyr Zelensky’s political future. This technology heated the society to the inevitability that the comedian would inevitably win the upcoming elections.
If you model a similar situation in the USA, just imagine that three nationalwide channels (NBC, CBS, and ABC) regularly discuss the possibility of Kanye West running for president for a year and a half. They do not criticize the singer for his incompetence and scandalous statements. At the same time, they form an opinion among voters that only Kanye can save America from crisis. And finally, Kanye West wins the election.
Volodymyr Zelensky’s official registration as a presidential candidate took place on January 21, 2019. From that moment, a new stage of his campaign began—two months of unrestrained populism and blatant lies. Following the populist tradition, the comedian positioned himself as a non-systemic candidate who rose against corrupt old politicians. However, he did not have a clear electoral program. There was only a set of vague theses that could be described as “for all that’s good and against all that’s bad”.
What did Zelensky promise? For example, in his program, he guaranteed that “a young family will have only one worry – to choose an apartment in the city or a country house”, that in Ukraine “fireworks will be shot only at weddings and birthdays”, that in the future there will be no ads for “Work in Poland”, and in Poland, there will appear ads for “Work in Ukraine”.
Zelensky also promised a wide application of popular referendums to pass laws, reducing utility tariffs for the underprivileged, zero tolerance for corruption at all levels, and assured that he is entering politics for only one term. What was missing in the program were explanations of the financial sources from which all these promises would be implemented.
The peak of lies by Zelensky could be seen on his pre-election billboards. One of them published a brilliant and simple phrase: “The end of the era of poverty on April 21, 2019”. Another one stated: “Report a corrupt official – receive 10%”. Obviously, all these were empty words. Ukrainians did not see any end of the era of poverty after Zelensky’s victory. And there was not a single case when someone received 10% of the confiscated property from a corrupt official.
In his few polished interviews with pre-agreed questions, Volodymyr Zelensky presented voters with an ideally optimistic picture of the future. He would definitely end the war in Donbas because it’s enough just to stop shooting. And in general, the war continues only because it benefits Petro Poroshenko.
He also promised to definitely sell all presidential planes, not to block roads with his motorcade, and to transfer state residences for children’s summer camps. All these promises remained empty words. After Zelensky’s victory, it turned out that presidential planes are needed because the head of state cannot be late. For the same reason, streets continued to be blocked before the president’s motorcade passed. The transfer of official residences to children was partial − indeed, children live and rest in these country houses, but these are Zelensky’s children.
For those who still doubted the comedian’s competence, they prepared the slogan “it can’t get worse”. This promise was first made by Zelensky himself in Odesa on February 18, 2019. Later, after the elections, on May 7, 2019, the same saying that “it can’t get worse” was repeated by Ihor Kolomoisky in an interview with the Bihus Info project. He even frankly added that Volodymyr Zelensky’s presidency is an experiment over the country.
The electoral campaign of the future president-comedian can be divided into three stages:
- Discrediting the main competitor in the elections.
- Creating an illusion around one’s persona using the TV series “Servant of the People” and a favorable atmosphere in oligarchic media.
- Distributing populist promises without explanations of how they can be implemented.
A feature of Zelensky’s presidential campaign was that he was always protected from unexpected questions. He refused to appear on political talk shows and participate in debates in the traditional format. From the day of registering as a candidate until the day of voting, Zelensky gave only a couple of interviews to loyal journalists. No one, not even foreign journalists, could ask him a question that could compromise or show Zelensky in an unfavorable light.
Ukrainians did not choose a politician. They were presented with an illusion, unreal for any democratic country, in which voters elect as president of their country their favorite TV hero.