The ruling pro-presidential Party of Regions will not support any oppositional political candidates for prime minister, if the issue comes up for a parliamentary vote next week, according to senior presidential adviser Hanna Herman.
Herman said that the Party of Regions faction met on Feb. 13 and started collecting signatures against oppositional candidates for prime minister. She said that the faction might support Deputy Prime Minister Yuriy Boyko’s candidacy if it comes for a vote.
“We’re refusing to vote for a candidate from the opposition, and collecting signatures from the faction so that the new prime minister is a member of the team, or is loyal to the team,” Herman said.
Last month, President Viktor Yanukovych had offered the job to Arseniy Yatseniuk, leader of the Batkivshchyna Party faction in parliament. He turned down the offer, but said he could agree to it in principle if changes to the Constitution are made to transfer some of the presidential powers to the Cabinet and parliament.
Despite the fact that the president and the parliament have been haggling over changes to the Constitution for weeks, Yanukovych, in an interview with Russian journalist Vitali Korotich on Feb. 13, said that he was preparing to submit his candidate for prime minister next week. The next parliament session will take place on Feb.18, but no vote for prime minister has been scheduled yet.
Herman said that at the Feb. 13 meeting of the Party of Regions, the pro-presidential majority made a “categorical decision” to not support an oppositional candidate, but instead vote for someone “who has a good reputation in the business circles, and who will be equally listened to in Brussels and in Moscow.”
She said that Boyko fits the description, but so do others. “Possibly, Boyko could get the votes, maybe even (First Deputy Prime Minister Serhiy) Arbuzov.”
Herman said that Boyko is “well-respected in Donetsk, which is really important.”
Boyko previously served as energy minister in Yanukovych’s government, and has been marred by corruption scandals, including the purchase of an offshore oil rig for public money at a hugely inflated price in 2012. Arbuzov is believed to be a part of the president’s inner circle and is often accused of incompetence.
Such Party of Regions candidates are unlikely to appease either the protesters in the streets, or Ukraine’s Western partners, who have been pushing for a broad coalition and a power sharing agreement with the opposition.
European Union Commissioner for Enlargement and Neighbourhood Policy Stefan Fuele said on Feb. 13 that he has told the president that major decisions in the country have to be made by consensus not only with the opposition, but with the civil society and the business community.
Herman also said that the Party of Regions is unlikely to support Sergiy Tigipko’s candidacy, who has been working to create a so-called Democratic Platform within the Party of Regions – a grouping to push for positive changes, but which agenda stops short of openly opposing the president.
“Tigipko is not well-perceived by the faction because he has been running back and forth all the time,” she said, referring to Tigipko’s frequent change of political allegiance.
Kyiv Post deputy chief editor Katya Gorchinskaya can be reached at katya.gorchinskaya@gmail.com
