President Petro Olekslyovych Poroshenko
Leadership Profile: Petro Oleksiyovych Poroshenko
January 14, 2015
David Herbut – Primary Article Contributor
Petro Oleksiyovych Poroshenko, 49, is the 5th and current president of Ukraine. During his presidential bid he ran as an independent candidate and garnered 54.7% of the vote, a majority, in the first round of elections. In Ukraine’s parliament, the Verkhovna Rada, he is represented through the, “Petro Poroshenko Bloc.” Although the Poroshenko Bloc won the parliamentary elections it did not gain a majority, forcing it to form a coalition government with the People’s Front, The Self Reliance Party, The Radical Party, and the Fatherland party.
In terms of crisis management, analysts describe Poroshenko as a leader who likes to take a conciliatory approach to problems by building relations with opposing groups instead of playing to one side. Poroshenko is described as taking more of a pragmatic approach to politics than some of his colleagues. In line with his pragmatic style, Poroshenko’s political background involved him moving between political parties. During the start of his political career Poroshenko allied himself with Leonid Kuchma and the Social Democrats before switching over to Yushchenko’s government and later to Yanukovych’s administration.
Although he has not been in office for long, Poroshenko still has a number of policies to his credit. His most important action thus far is the signing of the economic section of the European Union’s association agreement in June of 2014. By signing this agreement Poroshenko has moved Ukraine towards economic convergence with Western Europe. In addition to this, Poroshenko has made attempts to resolve the conflict in the east of Ukraine by pushing his 15-point peace plan. Domestically Poroshenko has pursued a program of state decentralization, which included the Parliamentary elections last October.
