UJ.com

Top 2 

                        THURSDAY, MARCH 28, 2024
Make Homepage /  Add Bookmark
Front Page
Nation
Business
Search
Subscription
Advertising
About us
Copyright
Contact
 

   Username:
   Password:


Registration

 
GISMETEO.RU
UJ Week
Top 1   

    
Nation    

Tymoshenko group blocks Rada podium again
Journal Staff Report

KIEV, June 19 – Tensions rose high in Parliament Thursday when opposition and coalition lawmakers clashed over the future of the government in a development that may trigger an early general election in Ukraine later this year.

The Regions Party, the largest opposition group, pressed for an emergency session of Parliament next week to hear a report from Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko over skyrocketing inflation.

But lawmakers from the Tymoshenko group, amid fears the report would help the Regions Party to submit a no-confidence vote to topple the government, has blocked the podium, making Parliament’s operation impossible.

The rising tensions underscore a gathering momentum amid growing number of lawmakers, led by the Regions Party, for the dismissal of Tymoshenko, blaming her for populist policy resulting in high consumer prices.

But the development also comes as Tymoshenko has been stepping up attacks on business interests of Rinat Akhmetov, the wealthiest Ukrainian, and the main financial sponsor of the Regions Party.

One of such attacks seeks to pull out of the production sharing agreement with U.S. oil firm Vanco Energy, undermining an important offshore oil and gas extraction project, in which Akhmetov owns 25% stake.

Tymoshenko, on a visit to Brussels on Thursday, said that her loyalists went to blocking the podium after signs had emerged that the Regions Party had been planning to summon up forces to topple the government.

“This is connected with all the provocations that are being prepared by the Regions Party,” Tymoshenko said in an interview with Ukrayinska Pravda online newspaper in Brussels on Thursday. “There is a reason for us to block the podium.”

The developments indicate that the pressure is rising on Tymoshenko after two pro-government lawmakers had quit the coalition, reducing the number of seats it controls to 225 in the 450-seat Parliament.

The no-confidence vote in Parliament would require a simple majority of at least 226 lawmakers backing the motion to topple the government. Tymoshenko said the Regions Party is not likely to collect enough votes.

“Their actions are aimed at destabilization of the situation in the country,” Tymoshenko said. “But they won’t have enough power to trigger anybody’s dismissal.”

Meanwhile, the leader of the Regions Party, former Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovych, said Thursday that his party will be able to come up with 150 signatures from lawmake5rs that are required to put the no-confidence vote on agenda. The party controls 172 lawmakers.

“These are demands from our voters, a half of Ukraine,” Yanukovych said. “The people want to hear what’s going to happen next and how has this happened that everyone is losing on such a terrible [consumer] price hike.”

Ukraine recorded consumer inflation at 31.1% between May and May 2007, one of the worst such indicators in the world, and much of the hike is thought to be caused by Tymoshenko’s populist social spending policy.

Meanwhile, Arseniy Yatseniuk, the speaker of Parliament, is said to be opposing the scenario of holding the emergency session to try to topple the Tymoshenko government, people familiar with the situation said.

That forced the Regions Party to come up with an alternative of electing a temporary leadership of Parliament that would replace Yatseniuk and put the no-confidence vote on the agenda.

“If [Yatseniuk] can’t do this, it’s necessary to raise the issue of electing the temporary leadership of Parliamentary presidium that can do this job,” Yanukovych said.

Ivan Kyrylenko, the leader of the Tymoshenko group, said the blocking of Parliament will continue indefinitely, warned that a 30-day countdown is underway that may enable the president to dismiss Parliament.

“The Regions Party made it clear that they are preparing for the election,” Kyrylenko said. “The Tymoshenko group is ready for the election, but we won’t be initiating it.” (tl/ez)




Log in

Print article E-mail article


Currencies (in hryvnias)
  22.03.2024 prev
USD 38.92 39.14
RUR 0.424 0.422
EUR 42.47 42.44

Stock Market
  21.03.2024 prev
PFTS 507.0 507.0
source: PFTS

OTHER NEWS

Ukrainian Journal   
Front PageNationBusinessEditorialFeatureAdvertisingSubscriptionAdvertisingSearchAbout usCopyrightContact
Copyright 2005 Ukrainian Journal. All rights reserved
Programmed by TAC webstudio