Speaker Volodymyr Rybak called on the government, the opposition and civil society to sit at a roundtable and find a way out of the current political gridlock. "This situation can no longer last, it is hurting the state," he said.
He admitted, however, that there is no dialog between the government and the opposition as of yet, only “ultimatums.”
The opposition stormed out of the traditional Monday parliamentary council meeting on the morning of Dec. 2, when Speaker Rybak
refused to yield to their demand to vote for the Cabinet’s resignation. The opposition has been demanding the Cabinet’s
resignation since Nov. 21, when the government took a decision to
halt preparation for signing a major treaty with the European Union.
Hundreds of thousands of Ukrainians
also demanded the government’s and president’s resignation in the streets over the
weekend in the wake of a violent police attack on peaceful
demonstrators on Nov. 30. The opposition insisted that those deputies who
are not prepared to express no confidence in the government effectively support police brutality.
“If they don’t back the
dismissal of the Cabinet of Ministers, it will mean that they support
the beating of students,” leader of Batkivschyna faction Arseniy
Yatseniuk said.
At the same time, leader of Party of Regions faction in parliament Oleksandr Yefremov, however, said he saw “no reason for government resignation”. He also said that the parliament cannot dismiss an individual minister, such as an interior minister who oversees the riot police who are accused of using excessive force against peaceful demonstrators.
Speaker Rybak said
he will make an attempt to gather leaders of all five parliament factions for
negotiations, despite the current differences. “They have to come here, I
will invite them, to examine the situation in the country and the
details of some issues, to be able to solve them,” Rybak said at a
briefing. “This is what needs to be done today, this needs to be
done tomorrow.”
He said the issues
that need to be debated include European integration, and
“others.” He also said that he would include the issue of government resignation on the Dec. 3 agenda.
