Arsen is in dire straits
“Unlike Fatherland, the Front of Change was built upwards. Now is the time for such parties, but the erroneous choice has already been made”
The parliament finished it plenary week prematurely. “Rada will gather when the draft amendments to the Constitution are ready,” VR Speaker Volodymyr Rybak said and closed the Thursday session. The MPs failed to find a compromise again: the parliamentary minority demands that the 2004 Constitution is brought back immediately, and Regionnaires convince on words that they are ready to vote for the Commission on Amending the Basic Law. However, neither the former, nor the latter are ready to make concessions. At least for the time being.
Meanwhile, the mass media focused their attention on the situation within the opposition. Recently everyone has learnt about Yulia Tymoshenko’s letter to the Fatherland faction. According to some MPs, Tymoshenko appealed to her comrades-in-arms with a demand to walk out of the talks with the power, refuse from forming the new government, and reject the idea of bringing back the Constitution of 2004.
Fatherland members are not eager to comment on this information. The versions of the people’s deputies often contradicted one another. The commentaries varied, starting with total denial of the letter’s existence to harsh statements about “inadequate assessment of the situation” by Yulia Tymoshenko.
However, like some oppositionists say off-records, after this letter Arsenii Yatseniuk was deprived of the monopoly right for holding negotiations with the power. It is said that Oleksandr Turchynov became his partner.
“This is a conspiracy theory which does not have any grounds,” Yatseniuk’s close comrade-in-arms since the time of the Front of Change, MP from Fatherland Andrii Pyshny denied this information in a conversation with The Day. “This is a team work. In spite of all rumors, our standpoint is coordinated, clear, and unchanged.”
UDAR LEADER VITALII KLITSCHKO: “THE CONSTITUTIONAL COURT MUST CANCEL ITS ILLEGAL DECISION, WHICH WAS APPROVED IN 2010. AFTER THIS WE CAN SIT DOWN AT THE NEGOTIATING TABLE AND TALK ABOUT THE NEW VERSION OF THE CONSTITUTION. WE NEED TO SOLVE THIS ISSUE RIGHT AWAY!”
Fatherland MPs tell in private talks that none of the faction members is going to support Tymoshenko’s stand officially. “We’re not suicides,” says one of majority district MPs from Fatherland. “Yulia Volodymyrivna overestimates the possibilities of the opposition, especially when her position now coincides with Yanukovych’s plans. … If we support her, people won’t understand,” the MP sighs.
Meanwhile, Arsenii Yatseniuk is really on the crossroads. On the one hand, there is Tymoshenko’s demand and a threat of being removed from Fatherland leadership, if the demand is not fulfilled. On the other hand, there is the Maidan, common position of the opposition, permanent fall of his rating, and so far obscure prospect of premiership.
For Arsenii Yatseniuk there is nowhere to reverse: the Front of Change does not exist anymore, whereas his former comrades-in-arms are now competing for launching their own political projects. “We had a problem at the very beginning when instead of uniting with Fatherland, the Front of Change was absorbed by it,” MP from Fatherland, former Front of Change member Volodymyr Polochaninov says. “We failed to unite these two political forces, which are different in their essence. Fatherland and the Party of Regions were based on the same principle, when representatives of Dnipropetrovsk and Donetsk were competing between each other. The Front of Change was built on different principle – upwards, not downwards, like the PoR and Fatherland. Ukraine needs such forces now. The latest events are proof that people are no more content with UDAR, Freedom, Fatherland, and the Party of Regions. The future belongs to political forces with local system of connections. And the Front of Change was namely this kind of a party. … It becomes apparent that Yatseniuk made an erroneous choice. But it was his right to do so,” Polochaninov added.
Many former members of the Front of Change in a conversation with The Day confirmed that Arsenii Yatseniuk practically traded his party for the position of formal leader of Fatherland. Experts predict that this deed may play a low down trick with Yatseniuk: it is not excluded that soon he will have to start political career from scratch. However, like they say, you cannot step twice into the same river. The Day’s Editor-in-Chief Larysa Ivshyna wrote on her Facebook page: “Arsen is in dire straits. A classical case: don’t do the things (and with people!) you don’t believe in.”
