Government legitimacy is a key element of political regime stability, especially when a state depends on external factors — war, debts, or market access. All Ukrainian presidents since 1991 began their rule with high legitimacy but lost public trust by the end of their term, and Zelensky was no exception to this pattern.
This was stated by political analyst Yuriy Romanenko during a solo broadcast on his YouTube channel.
"In 2016, at the Institute of the Future, we released a report 'Limits of Stability,' where I developed a scheme for what forms the basis of a state's stability limits. One of the key elements is legitimacy, both internal and external. This is when in the eyes of the country's population and elites, the ruler enjoys trust that allows them to implement policy without resistance," Romanenko explained.
The expert noted that the higher the legitimacy, the more stable the political regime. "Even if you have an economic crisis and problems under external pressure, internal legitimacy allows you to successfully overcome external challenges. People's belief that the government is taking the right steps — this belief is critically important," he emphasized.
Romanenko analyzed the trajectory of all Ukrainian presidents. "Every president in Ukraine had low legitimacy by the end of their term. Kuchma had eight percent, Yushchenko had two percent. Poroshenko ended with a crushing score. Only Kuchma managed to enter this presidential river twice — at the end of his first term, correctly playing the confrontation with communist Symonenko, he raised legitimacy, only to quickly lose it amid the cassette scandal," the analyst recounted.
According to the political scientist, Zelensky had exactly the same problem in late 2021 — early 2022, when his rating dropped to 18-22%. "Everything indicated that Volodymyr Oleksandrovych was following the same path as his predecessors. And the war radically changed this. Zelensky received even higher legitimacy than in 2019. He had complete carte blanche," Romanenko stated.
However, this carte blanche was not used for systemic changes. "The authorities were absolutely deaf to acute issues, no one was punished for mistakes. This left its mark on legitimacy. Legitimacy began to decline, ratings fell, anti-ratings increased," the expert noted.
Romanenko emphasized that the decline in legitimacy is exacerbated by postponed elections. "When we said in 2023 that elections need to be held, and the sooner the better for Zelensky because it would preserve legitimacy, they labeled us: traitors, Kremlin's fifth column. Now they've got an explosive vacuum," he concluded.
The occasion for reflections on legitimacy was the "Myndychgate" scandal — NABU's case against Energy Minister Halushchenko, which dealt a serious blow to the remnants of trust in the authorities and demonstrated the crisis of the political regime.
