President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy noted that the National Security and Defense Council's immediate reaction to the Constitutional Court's decision to abolish anticorruption infrastructure and the draft law on resetting the CCU submitted to the parliament deterred judges from making even more destructive decisions. He stated this on ICTV’s Freedom of Speech on Monday.
"I assess the work of the Constitutional Court of Ukraine as a devastating hurricane, and we are talking about the consequences of this hurricane," the President said.
He stressed that it is necessary to fight the hurricane, not its consequences.
Volodymyr Zelenskyy noted that by a decision of October 27, judges of the Constitutional Court of Ukraine completely abolished liability for false declarations, and corrupt officials will not be held criminally liable for lying in declarations unless this decision is overturned.
"They annulled and canceled out the work of the National Agency on Corruption Prevention - NACP can simply be closed. Then they raised the issue of the Supreme Anticorruption Court of Ukraine, which we launched in September last year," the President said, adding that the CCU aimed to completely dismantle the infrastructure of anticorruption bodies in our country.
According to him, the consequence of such a decision of the CCU could be the termination of Ukraine's cooperation with international partners, including the IMF, the World Bank, the EBRD and other financial institutions, signals of which have already been received.
The Head of State noted that representatives of some parliamentary political forces are behind the decision of the Constitutional Court. And only thanks to the prompt reaction of the President and the National Security and Defense Council was it possible to stop possible further actions of judges of the Constitutional Court, which would also have devastating consequences.
"Today they could have canceled, for example, land reform… And we knew that on Tuesday, the meeting on the unconstitutionality of the law on the Ukrainian language was to be held," Volodymyr Zelenskyy reminded.
But, according to him, the immediate decision of the National Security and Defense Council and the presidential bill "On Restoration of Public Confidence in the Constitutional Judiciary" submitted to the Parliament became a deterrent to the CCU judges.
The Head of State noted that neither he nor the parliament have the opportunity to recall previously appointed judges of the Constitutional Court. Therefore, if they want to preserve their dignity and reputation in society, they must resign of their own volition.
"I believe that this is the most liberal decision we can make today and then calmly move on to renewing the composition of the CCU," Volodymyr Zelenskyy said.
"I will not go back - I will not withdraw the bill. If I knew I was wrong and ordinary people told me, "Mr. President, you are wrong", I would immediately withdraw. But I'm sure I'm doing the right thing. I know it's difficult. But I believe that smart deputies will support me," the President summed up.