In the new Ukrainian government, reality copies the fiction of Netflix

In

Ukraine

, fiction does not imitate reality, but copies of reality

Netflix

, after the comedian Volodimir Zelenski, whose only introductory letter was to play in a popular TV series, ravaged polls and
I have badumed the presidency this week.

"I've never seen the series
The village waiterbut now it seems that I was living it, "Tetiana Gaiduk, director of communications for consultant Truman, told the Kiev NATION.

Zelenski, 41, is a well-known comedian in Ukraine. He has more than ten years of career in television and cinema and likes to define himself as a "clown". As a lawyer, he has always been devoted to humor. Its popularity surged in October 2015, when its producer Kvartal95 was launched
The village waiter. The first episodes already have more than 13 million visits in

Youtube

, Fox Studios acquired the rights of adaptation and Netflix, broadcast rights.

The series tells the story of Vasyl Holoborodko (Zelenski himself), a professor of history of about thirty years who became popular all over the country after one of his students viralized a video in which the professor delivers a harsh speech against him. Political corruption.

"Why are all honest people thieves, are smart people stupid?", Says Holoborodko to a colleague. "What kind of people are we, that we continue to vote for those liar bastards knowing that they are criminals?"

Through a window, a student secretly films the crisis of the teacher and viralizes the video on the networks. This throws to popularity the unknown teacher. Millions of Ukrainians defend their candidacy for the presidency, Holoborodko eventually wins the elections and begins to make his proposals from the presidency.

"Since January of this year when he started his candidacy, Zelenski has organized his campaign so that the line that divides the fiction is now very thin," said Gaiduk.

While the former president

Petro Poroshenko

, who was for reelection and got barely 23% of the votes against the devastating 73% of Zelenski, did a traditional campaign running the country from end to end, the comedian did not act, practically dodged the press and let Holoborodko speak for him

For a country at war, impoverished and dominated by a corrupt political clbad, the fiction portrayed by the TV character filled with comical gags, clichés and catchy phrases was far more appealing than any party platform. . For example, Holoborodko's decision to place his forgiving and discouraged primary school teacher at the head of a public body responsible for ending corruption hides a remarkable common sense, absent from the political world real.

A little more than five years after
Euromaidan – the revolt between pro-Russian and pro-Russian – this former Soviet republic of 43 million inhabitants, twice as large as the province of Buenos Aires, is nowadays one of the countries the poorest in Europe, with 25% of the population living in poverty. The destiny of Ukraine, whose name in Russian means precisely "land of the border", is inevitably linked to

Russia

. And the conflict over the annexation of Crimea and the war with the pro-Russians in the east of the country opened an insurmountable fissure between Kiev and Moscow, while Ukraine did not still not support being a full member of the

European Union

(EU)

"People are disappointed with the slow pace of reforms, inefficient anti-corruption agencies and an inefficient judicial system, the inability to quickly end the war in the country." East of Ukraine and difficult economic conditions, have also led the Ukrainians to seek a radical change, "said Gaiduk.

But this week, Holoborodko has finished and Zelenski has moved to action.

The president-actor, who, in one of the episodes of his series, enters parliament and begins to strafe corrupt legislators, always ready to be bought by bankers, announced this week the dissolution of the legislature and the 39, call for early elections for the month of July next. .

Political badyst Anatoly Oktysiuk, founder of the Institute's Chamber of Democracy in Kiev, explained to the nation that the decision to dissolve the Rada would allow Zelenski to transfer to the legislature the triumph that l & # 39; He had devoted before the executive.

According to opinion polls, Zelenski's brand new party, dubbed the same name as the television series "The People & # 39; s Server", will get 43% of the vote in the parliamentary elections, which would allow him to to get significant support for its reforms, "said Oktysiuk.

The badyst also felt that "people do not vote for Holoborodko, but for Zelenski, as a very popular actor, he is not corrupt and plays precisely in his favor his lack of" 39 experience in a political system that they consider corrupted ".

It remains to be seen how President Zelenski will continue to imitate Holoborodko or not in the major problems facing Ukraine.

In the series, the professor became president resists, for example, at the pressures of the International Monetary Fund, and does not speak of the influence that the tycoon Igor Kolomoiski, owner of the television channel that broadcasts his comedies, could have on Zelensky. On the other hand, in the historical dilemma between Ukrainian nationalism and the pro-Russians, although the series is in Russian and shows some approach to Moscow, Zelenski promised to maintain the pro-Western course and "make all "to end the war, without explaining how. I was going to take the peace process out of the stalemate.

The prestigious American badyst Alexander J. Motyl of Rutgers University, who has written extensively on Russia and Ukraine, was skeptical as to Zelenski's chances against a neighbor as powerful as Russia, the world's largest and most influential country. on the other side of the border. "When

Vladimir Poutine

If the Russians give up the construction of the empire, the Ukrainians will have the perfect right to elect a clown to the presidency, "he said. Until then, they should understand that running a country the dangerous world of today is not a joke. "