The Verkhovna Rada has failed to muster the votes needed to pass an action plan that would grant the government of Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal a year of immunity from dismissal.
Just 207 lawmakers supported the action plan on June 18. It needed 227 votes to pass. Two weeks earlier, on June 4, the parliament had rejected a previous version of the plan and sent it back to the Cabinet of Ministers for revision.
Opposition parties announced that the government does not deserve immunity and should resign, multiple Ukrainian media reported.
Among the reasons why lawmakers chose not to vote for the plan was the continued presence of controversial Interior Minister Arsen Avakov in the government. In the last month, pressure has grown on political leaders to remove him from office.
“Parliament did not support the government’s agenda. But, for us, it does not change anything. We will continue to perform the planned tasks,” Shmyhal wrote in a Facebook post.
Failed plan
According to Shmyhal, the action plan aimed to support Ukrainian producers, small and medium-sized businesses, energy companies and farmers; implement an updated health care reform plan; change the pension system; reduce the cost of credit and raise social standards. Initially, it included 10 pages, but was extended to 85 after review.
Of all the lawmakers who voted for the action plan, 176 were from the ruling Servant of the People party faction, 17 were from the Dovira (“Trust”) faction, six were from the For the Future faction and eight were independent.
The 25-member European Solidarity faction of former President Petro Poroshenko, the 20-member Golos (“Voice”) faction and the 43-member Opposition Platform – For Life faction all voted against the plan. The 26-member Batkivshchyna (“Fatherland”) faction of former Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko abstained from the vote.
Controversial minister
The plan’s failure comes as calls grow for the ouster of Interior Minister Avakov, who has held his post for over six years.
Reformers and non-governmental watchdogs accuse him of sabotaging police reform and high-profile investigations during his tenure. Two shocking crimes have recently cast a spotlight on the failings of Ukrainian law enforcement and Avakov’s ministry.
In May, police in the small town of Kaharlyk in Kyiv Oblast allegedly raped and tortured a woman and assaulted a man. That same month, over 20 people took part in a gunfight over private bus routes in the town of Brovary in the greater Kyiv metropolitan area, resulting in charges of hooliganism.
On June 17, the Verkhovna Rada’s law enforcement committee agreed to register a parliamentary motion to dismiss Avakov. For Avakov to be fired, 226 lawmakers must support the motion.
However, President Volodymyr Zelensky’s Servant of the People party holds a comfortable 248-vote majority in parliament and has has stood by Avakov, reappointing him minister twice already.
The Ukrainian parliament voted in Shmyhal as Ukraine’s new prime minister on March 4. His nomination was supported by 291 lawmakers, mostly from Zelensky’s party.
