Vasyl Lemak: “I believe in the sanity of the mayor” (OPINION)

The renowned scientist, lawyer Vasyl Lemak commented on the "holidays troubles" in Uzhgorod – actually, this time in the context of yesterday’s decision of the executive committee not to respond to the "schoolchildren’s riot" and not to return the children the break. The lawyer wrote in his profile on Facebook:

"Ukraine’s first experience of children’s peaceful assembly will definitely go down in the history of democracy. Despite the expansion of its venue, the poorly controlled assembly remained peaceful. No serious financial harm was done, no one was hurt (thank God!). But no one measures the moral damage caused to pupils, their dignity, they are treated as second-class citizens. The children’s holidays is not the point, I repeat again. The point is whether there is the community in Uzhgorod. These days we saw the "effective local democracy" which relies on the law of the European model and right in the spirit of the new obligations of the state. Unfortunately, this is a joke.

Illegal decisions of authorities led to public resistance and, as is customary in the post-Soviet "state of law", the police will be dealing with the resistance, but not with the illegal decision. Why be surprised? 

Parties are politicizing, as if some of them would certainly have lost their credibility had the decision been passed normally. The debate is not on whether a certain decision was passed lawfully, but on who and why does not like it and who is behind it. The Governor disapproved it, but it was not enough to defuse the situation. "To discourage others" – one of the government officials said in order to escalate the conflict. To discourage from what? From protesting against the decisions that both the Governor and the Mayor admitted to be erroneous and illegal? Or from using other constitutional rights? And all this in 500 meters from the European Union. 

I still believe in the reason and sanity of the Mayor. It’s not the children who made a mistake."