Infighting among the country’s top politicians got uglier this week, as the pro-Western coalition all but collapsed and President Yushchenko threatened to dismiss parliament for the second time in two years
Infighting among the country’s top politicians got uglier this week, as the pro-Western coalition all but collapsed and President Victor Yushchenko threatened to dismiss parliament forthe second time in two years – all on the eve of crucial international talks on Ukraine’s place in Europe and NATO.
The fragile marriage between Orange Revolution leaders President Victor Yushchenko and Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko has been in poor shape for several months.
But both – expected to spar for the presidential job in the 2010 election – have effectively served divorce papers on each other. Apparently, it’s a done deal this time, ending the governing coalition and parliamentary majority they created eight months ago.
The acrimony comes days ahead of key international meetings concerning Ukraine’s future, including a Sept. 45 visit from U.S. Vice President Dick Cheney and a Sept. 9 European UnionUkraine meeting in Evian, France, to discuss ways to strengthen ties.
The breaking point in the YushchenkoTymoshenko partnership appeared to have come over accusations from Victor Baloha, the president’s chief of staff, that the prime minister is a traitor for not denouncing the Aug. 8 Russian invasion of Georgia. In a recent letter to Ukraine’s State Security Service, Baloha also accused Tymoshenko of trying to kill him.
On Sept. 3, the scant chance of reconciliation appeared to rest on Yushchenko’s response to a demand from the Tymoshenko side that, if the president gets rid of Baloha and apologizes, the coalition might be saved.
If not, a strange parliamentary majority could form composed of Tymoshenko’s eponymous bloc known as BYuT, the Communists and her Orange Revolution foes, the Party of Regions.
The troika joined forces in parliament on the Verkhovna Rada’s first day back from the summer holidays on Sept. 2, providing the 300plus votes in a 450seat legislature to override a presidential veto, adopt legislation on impeachment and increase powers for the legislature at the expense of presidential rights.
Yushchenko said the nation is witnessing “the beginning of a political and constitutional coup” and that these laws impose the “dictatorship of the prime minister.”
“All these anticonstitutional laws will be vetoed,” he said in a televised address to the nation on Sept. 3.
Yushchenko said the events in the Rada ended the existence of the democratic coalition, and that “de facto, a new parliamentary coalition has been created.” He then went on to threaten an early election if a new alliance is not formalized within 30 days after the breakup of the previous coalition, the deadline allowed by the Constitution.
“If a coalition of deputies’ factions is not created in the time period allotted by Ukraine’s fundamental law, I will use my right to dismiss the Supreme Rada and announce preterm elections,” he said.
Escalating the conflict even further, 11 ministers loyal to the president out of 24 did not attend the cabinet’s weekly meeting on Sept. 3, including those for defense, justice and foreign affairs. The health, youth and sports, emergencies, cultural and education ministers did not show up. But Tymoshenko still had a quorum to run the meeting.
In a televised address to Ukrainians late on Sept. 3, Tymoshenko accused Yushchenko of sabotaging the coalition and her government for the purpose of scoring political points in his reelection campaign.
She said the president went “to the edge” to get a boost in his ratings.
“Even though there is practically no chance, [the president’s advisers] are lost in their mindless fight,” she added.
Recent polls show that Tymoshenko is the top contender for the next presidential contest with just more than 20 percent support, followed closely by Yanukovych. Yushchenko trails far behind with less than 10 percent support.
Tymoshenko also refuted claims that she was soft in her support for Georgia, saying: “My position on Georgia is in line with the European Union, and it is not to drag Ukraine into conflicts.”
Tymoshenko also pledged her party would push – supposedly with the votes of Regions, Communists and possibly other parties, to reshape Ukraine’s Constitution. The purpose, she said, is to clearly divide authority among the president, premier and parliament.
This, what seems to be the real divorce of Ukraine’s two Orange Revolution heroes before they start to spar for the presidential seat, follows years of backstabbing. Both onetime allies appear to have completely turned into bitter rivals and are preparing for the cutthroat presidential contest ahead.
More mess and fighting
After the latest chopping at presidential powers, Baloha accused the troika led by Tymoshenko of usurping power and preparing a constitutional coup, whose goals are a twoparty system and the elimination of the executive branch. Their “conductors are their ideologues and patrons in Moscow who seek revenge for the events of 2004 and make Ukraine a controlled country … a useful tool in Russia’s geopolitical and geoeconomic interests,” he said in a statement released by the Secretariat.
Baloha accused Tymoshenko of teaming up with Victor Medvedchuk – the man who headed expresident Leonid Kuchma’s presidential administration earlier this decade – to create a crisis situation in Ukraine. Baloha, himself an exally of Medvedchuk, also accused Tymoshenko of “constantly and systematically blocking the performance of the coalition agreement” between her party and the president’s grouping.
In the midst of the turmoil, some members of the dying coalition called for it to be preserved. A small grouping of lawmakers from the propresidential bloc urged Yushchenko to dismiss Baloha, whom they view as a troublemaker.
There were no signs that the president’s office would act on the ultimatum by the time the Kyiv Post went to print.
Experts say if the RegionsBYuT tandem is formalized in parliament, it would be unstable, leading to yet another snap election. Yet both camps could stick with a situational partnership to contain Yushchenko, keeping him in check with the threat of impeachment.
If, on the other hand, no official parliamentary majority is formed in the next month, the legal grounds for dismissing the Rada and holding repeat elections to the national legislature will arise.
Antipresidential legislation
The turmoil erupted late on Sept. 2, when Tymoshenko’s faction and Regions combined their 331 votes in the 450member chamber to finally elect the Rada’s two deputy speakers from among their own ranks. The key Rada posts have been vacant since Rada elections nearly one year ago. Regions’ Oleksandr Lavrynovych and BYuT’s Mykola Tomenko took flanking seats on the presidium, adjacent to Speaker Arseniy Yatseniuk, a staunch Yushchenko ally.
Yatseniuk and most propresidential lawmakers stormed out of the Rada after the newly formed alliance rushed – and within one hour adopted legislation undercutting presidential authority.
Experts said the Regions Party, Yulia Tymoshenko bloc and Communists had varying motives for joining forces against Yushchenko. Some of them find him personally objectionable; others consider him a weak politician, or just wanted to weaken the presidency, regardless of who holds the office.
Whatever the motives, in just two votes, the freshlybaked majority clearly spelled out the presidential impeachment process. They established an ad hoc parliament investigative commission that would swiftly be able to handle an impeachment process.
According to the new procedure, the deputies have to vote by a simple majority to create this new special commission to investigate “state treason or other crime committed by the president.” After two months of investigation, the commission would have to have its results approved by parliament and then send them on to the Constitutional and the Supreme Courts. If the courts rule the commission’s claims legitimate, the Rada could drive the final nail into the head of state’s political coffin.
The bill’s author, BYuT’s Andriy Portnov, also penned amendments to the Law on Cabinet of Ministers that eliminates six presidential rights and powers over executive branch appointments, governmental orders and agreements with foreign governments.
Portnov said the changes will be “yet another step towards building Ukraine as a democratic state” and fully abide by the Constitution.
The powers of the presidency were curtailed by the changes made to the Constitution in the heat of the 2004 Orange Revolution, when Yushchenko agreed to a compromise deal that paved the way for him to the presidency.
After a decade of presidential rule under Leonid Kuchma, many politicians are calling for a weaker chief of state, a move that would turn Ukraine into a fullfledged parliamentary system.
