Translated material
Head of state without powers
The President of Ukraine is experiencing a political default
Today, Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko, who is expected to visit Moscow at the end of February, may lose the remnants of his powers. The official press organs of the parliament and government - "Voice of Ukraine" and "Governmental Courier" - yesterday typed up the law on the Cabinet of Ministers. “The law will be released on Friday if it is not lifted late in the evening,” the Voice of Ukraine editorial office told Vremya Novostey. The law comes into force after its publication in the official media.The law redistributes presidential powers to manage foreign policy and defense in favor of the prime minister and the Rada, and also gives the government the right to form executive power in the regions. The President is losing what little he had left after the political reform of January 1, 2006.
Presidential powers have been curtailed thanks to the efforts of Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovych and Yushchenko's former ally in the Orange Revolution, Yulia Tymoshenko, whose parties overcame the first presidential veto on the law on January 12. On January 19, Yushchenko used the veto for the second time, but the Rada ignored his decision.
Yushchenko will challenge the scandalous law in the Constitutional Court (CC), the presidential representative in this court, Vladimir Shapoval, said. In his opinion, the president was deprived of the opportunity to apply the right of veto to regulations. And, in addition, the document was “adopted and made public in violation of the procedure prescribed by law.”
“The president will probably challenge the law on government in the Constitutional Court, although in the end he will come to terms with its existence,” Ukrainian political scientist Vladimir Malinkovich expressed this opinion in an interview with VN. “Yushchenko’s crushing defeat in the form of loss of power is the final chord of an unsuccessful political game in which the president made a number of fatal mistakes,” Vladimir Polokhalo, a political scientist and Rada deputy from the Yulia Tymoshenko Bloc (BYuT), commented on the situation to VN. After the 2006 parliamentary elections, Yushchenko was never able to create an “orange” coalition; “he agreed with the appointment of Yanukovych as prime minister, although he could have held early parliamentary elections,” Mr. Polokhalo believes. Yushchenko's hopes for a broad parliamentary coalition with the participation of the Party of Regions and the Our Ukraine presidential bloc turned out to be wrong: “This policy led Yushchenko to a political default - his rating fell from 55% in 2005 to 5% in 2007.”
Our Ukraine cannot claim to be a third force either. “In the new political reality created by the hands of the president, there are two real players left - the Party of Regions and BYuT, who will fight for power in the next parliamentary elections, most likely, early ones. The president, without the support of a powerful political force, will be forced to make concessions to the winner,” Mr. Polokhalo concluded.