KIEV, August 30 (RIA Novosti) – A popular Ukrainian comedy group has unveiled plans to set up a comic party, in an apparent bid to make fun of the country’s politicians, the UNIAN news agency reported Friday.
“We thought that if professional politicians today look like clowns, why can’t professional clowns become politicians?” the Maski Show group’s artistic director and actor Georgy Deliyev said.
The idea to set up the Satirical-Democratic Party (SDPU) came to him after he visited a local hospital, Deliyev said. “After going to a hospital I decided that it was high time I went into politics,” he said, in a jibe at the government’s handling of the country's moribund healthcare system.
The group first planned to name the party as The Most Foolish Party of Ukraine, but they later changed their mind, saying “other parties could have been offended.”
Despite its frivolous name, the party’s political goals are apparently serious – making politicians fulfil their election promises and only tell the truth, as well as fighting against corruption and repairing the roads.
Most Ukrainians have little faith in their political system, according to recent polls. A survey last September by the Ukrainian Marketing and Research Institute showed only 14 percent of respondents expected free and fair elections in the October parliamentary polls.
Debate in the Rada, the country’s parliament, has frequently descended into riotous scenes in recent years, leaving some deputies injured.
