Translated material
"Universal" Yushchenko
The President of Ukraine is trying to create a coalition of all political forces
Yesterday, a national round table, convened on the initiative of President Viktor Yushchenko, began work at the Secretariat of the President of Ukraine. In fact, this is the last chance for a peaceful exit from the acute political crisis that Ukraine is experiencing after the spring parliamentary elections.The round table meeting on Wednesday, as announced by Rada Speaker Alexander Moroz, did not take place. Viktor Yushchenko made it clear that it is not the speaker’s place to announce its holding. Instead, the president gave an interview late Wednesday to Ukrainian news agencies and television channels in which he personally announced his idea of trying to achieve a national consensus in finding a way out of the crisis that has struck the Ukrainian elite. According to Mr. Yushchenko, within the framework of the round table, through mutual concessions from all parties to the conflict, it is possible to find a compromise that no one could have imagined two months ago.
However, the president began his speech by saying that he does not rule out the dissolution of the Verkhovna Rada, “although this will bring additional confrontation.” Such a signal, obviously, was supposed to demonstrate the president’s readiness to take the most decisive actions allowed to him within the framework of the constitution.
A few hours before the round table began, Mr. Yushchenko met with former Orange Revolution comrade Yulia Tymoshenko, whom he dismissed as prime minister last September. The presidential press service reported the content of the conversation very succinctly: “The parliamentary crisis and ways to overcome it were discussed.” Ms. Tymoshenko herself did not comment on the conversation with the president. Yushchenko's last meeting with the leader of the anti-crisis coalition, head of the Party of Regions Viktor Yanukovych, took place at the beginning of this week, when the president was expected to submit his candidacy for the post of prime minister to parliament, which never took place.
At the round table, the main political opponents - Yanukovych and Tymoshenko - were seated side by side. Journalists drew attention to the “new dress in black and white with ruffles,” in which the “orange princess” appeared. Despite this, Ms Tymoshenko appeared unhappy with the proceedings as Mr Yanukovych studied his prepared speech. To the right and left of the president are the leaders of the legislative and executive branches, Speaker of the Rada Alexander Moroz and Prime Minister Yuriy Yekhanurov. It seems that Ukraine has not seen all the country’s leaders, including former ones, sitting at the same table for a long time. Among the guests were the first president of Ukraine Leonid Kravchuk and ex-speaker of the Rada Ivan Plyushch. His outfit was emphatically national; one of the former leaders of the Ukrainian Rukh was wearing a white embroidered shirt. The second president, Leonid Kuchma, was not in the hall.
The meeting was attended as representatives of the public by the president of the Ukrainian PEN Club, an academician, the heads of two capital universities and the chairman of the Kharkov human rights group.
The meeting was opened by the president, who stated that “the moment of truth is coming in the political life of the country.” He called for unity as a “no alternative category” that should be the result of the round table. Among the principles of unity he set out are “conciliarity of the Ukrainian lands”, “respect for freedom of speech”, implementation of the European course of the nation”, “guaranteeing the statehood of the Ukrainian language”. (Yesterday it became known that the Ukrainian government has already introduced mandatory certification of civil servants for mandatory knowledge of the Ukrainian language from July 26, which will apply to those regions where local legislative bodies have granted the Russian language regional status.) Viktor Yushchenko called on those present to sign the final document -- "universal of national unity".
Speaker Moroz advocated the formation of a government based on a broad coalition and considered it possible to sign the proposed document as a “basis”, but suggested not calling it a “universal”, since “this word refers to an act from the hetman, one body... and here are representatives of the public and different branches of government."
Yulia Tymoshenko categorically stated that she “will not join any broad coalitions under any circumstances.” She called for the creation of another coalition, “a single powerful democratic one” consisting of “all democratic forces in parliament and the “orange” forces outside it, to go together to new elections. The leader of the “orange” thus made it clear that she would not sign the “universal” proposed by the president.
Viktor Yanukovych called for an agreement on unification “in favor of the people, in memory of the graves of their parents and out of love for the homeland.” According to him, “we all wanted changes and to free ourselves from the dirt that has existed for the last 15 years.” Yanukovych exceeded the five-minute speech limit, but the president’s attempts to interrupt the ex-prime minister were unsuccessful.
The leader of the Communist Party, Pyotr Simonenko, proposed holding referendums on all controversial issues, from joining NATO and the WTO to language and religious problems, and also complained about the collapse of film studios and folk art circles. He spoke for 15 minutes, three times longer than the time limit, after which he asked for a break in the meeting, which by that point had already lasted two hours. The President politely but firmly rejected this request: “Be patient, Pyotr Nikolaevich, be patient, if we don’t speak, the street will speak, I prefer that we speak.”
And Prime Minister Yuri Yekhanurov proposed creating “the only acceptable broad coalition without the Communist Party, with its representatives retaining the positions that they received in a difficult struggle.” And he said meaningfully: “The government is ready to perform its functions as long as necessary to achieve a balanced political compromise.” Director of the Institute of National Strategy-Ukraine Stanislav Belkovsky noted in this regard to Vremya Novostey that, in his opinion, President Yushchenko will not, as expected, nominate Yanukovych for the post of prime minister until August 2, taking advantage of his right to interpret the “vague” provision of the constitution , which does not require this “imperatively”. The constitution only says that the president has 15 days to consider such a candidacy after it is presented by the coalition, and therefore, according to Mr. Belkovsky, has the right to treat it negatively. In other words, until there is another candidate, Yekhanurov will remain prime minister. This is what a “universal” looks like.