You're reading: Lviv mayor Sadovyi won’t join government

The People’s Front party, headed by Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk, offered Lviv Mayor Andriy Sadoviy the position of first deputy prime minister on Dec. 1. After the announcement on their website Sadovyi rejected the proposal, saying he will stay on as the mayor of Lviv. 

“The president and (Prime Minister) Arseniy Yatsenyuk and I discussed appointing me to the government right after the (parliamentary) elections. I clearly said that my current situation makes it impossible, and they understood,” Sadovyi explained in a Facebook post on Dec. 1.

Sadovyi is the leader of Samopomich (Self-Help), the party that came third in the Oct. 26 elections. Sadovyi did not make it to the parliament, having put himself in 50th place on the party list.

Rejecting the post of the deputy prime minister, Sadovyi suggested Natalie Jaresko, a co-founder and CEO of Horizon Capital, a regional equity management fund, be offered the position.

“She was born in the United States but she has lived in Ukraine for the past 20 years. She is a true patriot and is well aware of the situation,” according to Sadovyi.

Jaresko has also been put forward by other parties. Two Ukrainian websites, Lb.ua and Ukrainska Pravda, reported that the President Petro Poroshenko Bloc wants to nominate her as minister of finance. Jaresko was not immediately available for comment.

Sadovyi has been the mayor of Lviv since 2006. He said it would be “careless” for him to resign because he is responsible for the city and doesn’t have anyone to hand over responsibility for the city.

“If the mayor resigns the city could fall under the influence of criminals,” Sadovyi said in his Facebook post.

Sadoviy’s position is consistent with positions taken by other members of the party. Previously Samopomich party representatives announced they would not accept jobs in the government.

Hanna Hopko, a lawmaker elected on the Samopomich party list, told the Kyiv Post the party will focus on work in parliament.

In mid-November Yatsenyuk suggested appointing Hopko Ukraine’s minister of ecology. At the time she did not endorse the idea.

“I’m ready to help (Ukraine’s future) ecology minister, but there are other spheres where I could be more effective,” Hopko said on Nov. 14. “So far I have no plans to work in the government.”

Another Samopomich lawmaker Pavlo Kyshkar also told Kyiv Post that the party members will work in the Verkhovna Rada to push through long-awaited reforms.

“People voted for us as lawmakers,” Kyshkar said. “The trust of the electorate is more valuable than any ministerial seats.”

Oleksiy Haran, a political expert and professor at Kyiv Mohyla Academy, believes Samopomich may just not want to take responsibility for unpopular decisions of the government.

“I suppose they don’t want to enter the government because they don’t have the personnel, a ministerial position requires not only political, but also management skills,” Haran said. “However, they aim to head parliamentary committees and that’s the best position for civic activists, and Samopomich has many of them on its list.”

Kyiv Post staff writer Olena Goncharova can be reached at [email protected].