The embrace of former opponents Our Ukraine's Olga Gerasimyuk (left) and Yulia Timoshenko, does not mean that the fighting's over in the Rada.
Photo: Alexander Techinsky
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Chosen in Disorder
// Ukrainian parliament begins new political season
The autumn session of the Ukrainian Supreme Rada began yesterday. The dust of Ukrainian politics hasn't settled at all in the month break and the battles of the autumn are expected to be just as heated as the summer showdown over the formation of the cabinet. Our Ukraine's disputes with the Party of the Regions over the formation of a “broad coalition” may turn into loud walkouts and plans in the president's circle to form a new party promise new political upheavals.
They Met
The new political season began yesterday in Ukraine. Supreme Rada members returned from summer vacation and met for their first parliamentary session. They hadn't been seen since August 5, when they confirmed the new cabinet of ministers headed by Party of the Regions leader Viktor Yanukovich. Those ministers, Yanukovich included, were present for yesterday opening of the Rada. Rada members from the Yulia Timoshenko Bloc also returned to the Rada. They had boycotted the plenary session on July 20 to protest Yanukovich's confirmation as prime minister and to demand that President Viktor Yushchenko dissolve the parliament. It seems that Timoshenko and company are kicking up less dust now. At the opening session, the Timoshenko Bloc parliamentarians sang the national anthem with their sworn political enemies Yanukovich, speaker Alexander Moroz and Our Ukraine members. Of course, choral singing may not change their decision to go into “strict opposition,” as Timoshenko promised.
The parliamentarians decided not to overload themselves on their first day back. The main issue of the day was the formation of a work plan for the current session. There were about145 issues in the draft plan, including the draft budget for 2007. Several hours after they began, faction leaders and committee heads decided to reschedule the beginning of real work preliminarily to September 19 and spend the rest of the week establishing the agenda for the autumn session.
Members of the “anticrisis coalition” that makes up the majority in the parliament (the Party of the Regions, Socialist Party and Communist factions) took up personnel issues within the coalition yesterday. Party of the Regions member Raisa Bogatyreva was made the coordinator, and Moroz and Yanukovich were chosen as cochairmen of the coalition. Yanukovich promised his colleagues to do everything possible to cooperate with the authorities and the opposition. “We see the opposition not as opponents, but as allies in the strengthening the economy of the state, the democratic bases of life of Ukrainian society. The government is accountable for the success of our actions. That is the harmonious cooperation of the parliament and the president.”
They Disagreed
In spite of Yanukovich's optimism, the Party of the Regions has yet to develop cooperation with the opposition or even with Our Ukraine, the alliance with which was supposed to be cemented by the Our Ukrainian members' agreement to Yanukovich as prime minister. Now Our Ukraine is setting new and rather strict conditions for its entrance into the “anticrisis coalition.” Kommersant has learned that Our Ukraine is insisting that the basis of the new coalition agreement be the clauses of the Universal Agreement on National Unity draft on the coalition that was initialed by the parties in July.
Simultaneously, Our Ukraine negotiators led by faction leader Roman Bessmertny are insisting that the president, prime minister and speaker of the parliament assure the world community of the immutability of Ukraine's foreign policy and intentions of becoming a member of NATO. “If the document [the coalition agreement] is signed taking into account Our Ukraine's proposals, we will sign it regardless of who will be members of the coalition,” Bessmertny told journalists. Otherwise, he threatened to take extreme measures. “If the decision is made to enter the coalition, our ministers will continue to work in the administration. If there is no decision, our ministers will leave the administration and we will consider the question of forming an opposition force,” he said. Our Ukraine representatives announced that they do not intend to draw the negotiating process with the Party of the Regions out. Bessmertny promised that relations between the parties would be settled within two weeks.
The other camp is not inclined to give way, however. Party of the Regions and Socialist Party representatives made it clear that Our Ukraine's conditions are unacceptable to them. “Returning to the exclusive variant is an attempt at revision of what has happened in parliament lately and we will naturally reject it,” Evgeny Kushnarev, a Party of the Regions leader said.
They Split
Within Our Ukraine itself, a schism has been noted. The faction has divided into supporters and opponents of entering the “anticrisis coalition.” Kommersant has learned that about half of the parliamentarians in the faction may leave it if they alliance is formed and that they are thinking of forming an interfactional alliance. Moreover, one more group of malcontents can be identified. They are those who do not want to be on the same team as the Communists (the Communists are the third force in the “anticrisis coalition”). In particular, Alexey Ivchenko, leader of the Congress of Ukrainian Nationalists, and Vladimir Stretovich, leader of the Christian-Democratic Union, are insisting that the coalition be anticommunist. One of the most ardent opponents of the merger of the Party of the Regions and Our Ukraine is Nikolay Katerinchuk, head of the latter's political executive committee. He proposed that the bloc announced in July remain in the opposition.
Katerinchuk's proposal did not find support. Moreover, schismatics were strongly condemned by faction leader Bessmertny. He said that anyone who did not stand by the decision of the faction on the formation of a broad coalition would have to give up their mandate and look for another political force that they could agree with.
At present, there is one topic of discussion by the Ukrainian establishment – the formation of a new pro-presidential political project initiated by former prime minister Yury Ekhanurov and first deputy head of the presidential secretariat Ivan Vasyunyk. Kommersant has obtained information that Katerinchuk, Stretovich and former deputy prime minister Vyacheslav Kirilenko are also involved in the project. All of them confirmed for Kommersant that “such a project is being actively discussed.” Rumors of the separation of a new political force from Our Ukraine were also confirmed by head of the presidential secretariat Oleg Rybachuk in an interview. He said that the president wants to see a party that would unite “from below.” “The president has often said that he would like to see a party, and not a bloc, because it is always very difficult to make a decision in a bloc,” Rybachuk concluded.
The topic was discussed at the last meeting of the Our Ukraine political council. Petr Poroshenko, one of the leaders of the bloc, was most disturbed by talk of a new party. He was most critical of Katerinchuk. “A person tries to form a new project that no one believes in, he travels through the regions on divisive activities! Let him leave the political council and the party and do what he wants,” Poroshenko grumbled.
Infighting in Our Ukraine means that Yushchenko and his circle are preparing for the 2009 presidential elections. The president has recently ostentatiously distanced himself from Our Ukraine, which is no longer the keeper of Orange values now that it has compromised in negotiations with the Party of the Regions. Now the president needs a force of his own that he can depend on in three years.
Mustafa Nayem, Kiev; Vladimir Solovyev
All the Article in Russian as of Sep. 06, 2006
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