Zlata Ognevich, who represented Ukraine at the Eurovision Song Contest has resigned her position as a Radical Party MP in her country’s Parliament.

Ognevich won her seat as a non-partisan candidate on the Radical Party list in the Ukrainian parliamentary elections of October 2014. Her role was to focus on issues of culture and copyright.

Speaking at the time of her election, Radical Party leader Oleh Lyashko said:

I understand that people perceive parliamentarians as jowly, paunchy, old, sick and stupid people. I want the young, smart and beautiful in this Parliament.

A year on, in November 2015, and Zlata Ognevich has stepped down from her high-profile role. During her resignation speech, she accused her parliamentary colleagues of not putting the needs of the Ukrainian public first.

I came to the parliament neither for a deputy’s mandate, nor for any privileges. I came as a citizen who saw a new path for Ukraine. And now I see that when there is no culture, it’s much easier to control and manipulate the people, she said. That’s why under such circumstances I, as a cultural activist, see no use of staying in this parliament, I just see the constant carving-up of political power

Zlata is a soloist of the Ensemble of Song and Dance of the Ukrainian Armed Forces. At the Eurovision Song Contest 2013, she placed third with the song, Gravity. The same year, she co-hosted the Junior Eurovision Song Contest when the competition was held in Kiev.

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