Joint meeting scheduled for Jan. 19 between president, faction leaders and cabinet.
Following the Jan. 10 parliament vote to oust the government of President Viktor Yushchenko following an angry dispute with Moscow over supplies of natural gas, it remains unclear whether the president and parliament will come to an agreement on this latest political crisis.
The political crisis, triggered last week as a result of a nearly twofold increase in the price of Ukraine’s gas imports, has led to a joint meeting between the legislature, the government and Yushchenko, scheduled for Jan. 19.
The dismissal doesn’t appear to have paralyzed the government, which insists its ouster by parliament was illegal. But Yushchenko is looking weakened and uncomfortable ahead of the March 26 parliamentary elections.
Yushchenko dubbed parliament’s decision unconstitutional and demanded it be rescinded. That, however, looks unlikely to happen.
While the announcement of the joint session indicated Yushchenko was pushing dialogue, there was no sign he had softened his view about the lawmakers’ unexpected move. Yushchenko called on political leaders to “show respect for the constitution and the law, and to be guided, above all, by national interests.”
Only a year into his presidency, Yushchenko has found himself cornered, with few political allies, several old companions turned opponents, a paralyzed Constitutional Court and, now, a government that’s been ordered to step down.
Flexing his political muscle, Yushchenko last week called for a national referendum to reverse political reforms which are being phased in this year. Those reforms envision key presidential powers shifting this year to parliament.
Political analysts say that Yushchenko could have prevented the current situation if he had pushed for such a referendum earlier. The reforms in question were endorsed by Yushchenko himself at the height of the Orange Revolution as a compromise, lifting him to the presidency.
Some of the presidential powers shifted to parliament immediately at the beginning of this year; others are to be phased in later in the year, yet the vagueness of the law would require clarifications from Ukraine’s Constitutional Court.
Uncertainty over what authority parliament inherited Jan. 1 hasn’t stopped the Rada from going ahead with their vote to oust the government.
The legislature’s official reason: the government failed to defend Ukraine’s national interests in its gas settlement with Russia.
Yushchenko claims the dismissal was part of a partisan political ruse.
“Most likely, talk about the so-called dismissal of the government had one purpose … to destabilize the political situation in Ukraine 80 days before the end of the campaign for the parliamentary elections,” Yushchenko told the Financial Times this week in an interview.
Yushchenko has insisted the cabinet would continue to operate as usual.
Parliament Speaker Volodymyr Lytvyn said parliament’s decision served as a warning to the president that his government is not performing well enough.
Some political experts agree with Yushchenko regarding procedural violations committed by lawmakers. However, as of today, there is no judicial body that could evaluate the legitimacy of the vote, because the Constitutional Court lacks enough judges for a quorum, and parliament has stalled the process of instating them.
“This issue can only be resolved by the Constitutional Court,” said Svetlana Kononchuk, a political analyst from the Ukrainian Center for Independent Political Research.
“The absence of [a quorum] negatively impacts the whole situation.”
Ukrainian law stipulates that the president, the Congress of Ukrainian Judges and the parliament each appoint six justices to the Constitutional Court’s 18-judge bench. Although both the president and the congress have named their replacements for judges who retired last year, the Rada has been less expeditious with its appointees and even delayed swearing in those appointed by the president and the congress. As a result, the nation has not had a functioning Constitutional Court for several months.
Yushchenko has retaliated against Parliament, threatening to initiate a nationwide referendum to cancel the political reforms.
In his interview to the Financial Times, Yushchenko declined to say when the referendum would be held. Presidential spokesperson Iryna Herashchenko told the Post it should not be rushed, adding that it would take place after the parliamentary elections.
Some feel a referendum will only aggravate things.
Party of Regions leader Viktor Yanukovych has proposed that the referendum also ask voters whether they support making Russian a second official language.
Andriy Yermolaev, director of the Sofia Center for Social Research, called the referendum idea “a virtual nuclear bomb for Ukraine.”Volodymyr Fesenko, the head of the managing board of the Penta Center for Applied Political Research, said that a referendum of this kind doesn’t make sense either legally or politically. The referendum questions should be examined by the Constitutional Court first, he said.
