Former Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk proposed significant changes to Ukraine’s Constitution that would limit President Petro Poroshenko’s power.
The proposal came at his People’s Front annual Party Congress in Kyiv after a raucous introduction from current Prime Minister Volodymyr Groysman, who replaced Yatsenyuk in April 2016.
Groysman praised his predecessor’s “leadership qualities” by saying he took a “decisive and brave step” to lead the country after the 2014 EuroMaidan Revolution that toppled President Viktor Yanukovych.
Presidential ambitions?
Yatsenyuk argued for serious changes to Ukraine’s constitutional structure. The People’s Front party he leads has 81 seats in the Verkhovna Rada, making it the second largest faction after President Petro Poroshenko’s grouping of 136 members of parliament.
“Bringing all the powers of the president into line with the constitution – that’s something this parliament can do,” Yatsenyuk said. “And I am speaking to all our partners in the parliamentary coalition and personally to Petro Oleksiyovich [Poroshenko]. We can guarantee a European model of a parliamentary-presidential country before the next presidential and parliamentary elections.”
Anton Gerashchenko, a People’s Front deputy, also told the Kyiv Post that the party supported a constitutional reform agenda that would prevent the president from “interfering in the executive branch’s work processes.”
He added, in response to a question on whether the former prime minister would run for president, that he would leave Yatsenyuk “to announce that himself, but it’s understood that he’s the only possible candidate from People’s Front.”
Yatseniuk himself suggested that People’s Front should run a candidate for the March 2019 presidential election.
At a press briefing after the congress ended, the former prime minister didn’t give a straight answer about his candidacy saying, “it’s easy to find an answer to it (the question)” and adding “we will talk about it when we have presidential elections.”
However, in his opening speech, Yatsenyuk didn’t hide his pleasure in the chance at becoming president.
While reading a letter from Joseph Daul, the president of the European People’s Party, addressed to him as “Dear President Yatseniuk” (meaning the president of the party), Yatseniuk paused to tell the audience: “sounds good.”
Groysman wavers from Poroshenko
Groysman, who headlined the event, appeared to be wavering politically from staying with Poroshenko.
The prime minister recalled the 2014 EuroMaidan Revolution required “leadership qualities” in its aftermath.
“And we have such a leader: Arseniy Petrovich Yatsenyuk,” he said.
After the Kyiv Post asked the prime minister whether his statements implied that Poroshenko was lacking as a leader, Groysman dodged the question.
“Arseniy Yatsenyuk took responsibility,” after the 2014 EuroMaidan Revolution, he replied. “This was a very decisive and brave step.”
“I want to emphasize that this political juncture completely does not interest me,” added the prime minister. “I have no plans to join any political party.”
