The Chair and the Nerves
According to President Leonid Kuchma, Verkhovna Rada Speaker Volodymyr Lytvyn, the president’s permanent representative in parliament Oleksandr Zadorozhny, and some parliamentary faction leaders, the problem of a new Cabinet of Ministers should be solved as early as next week. Meanwhile, passions around the premier’s chair (not vacant, incidentally) run high. That the situation is delicate is shown, in particular, by the comment of First Vice Speaker Hennady Vasyliev who said it is “unconstitutional” and “wrong” to look for the new premier candidature in parliament while the present incumbent is still in office. According to him, it would be a good idea first to dismiss the current government, if there are complaints about it, and only then think about its successors. Aware of their lame-duck status, people cannot work effectively, he noted.
As Speaker Volodymyr Lytvyn put it in a interview, “They’ve run through the drawers and are marking time.”
Prime Minister Anatoly Kinakh also spoke out: in his words, attempts to form a Verkhovna Rada majority by primitively vying for portfolios and creating conditions for a government crisis lead to a deadlock, which will very adversely affect budget adoption and aggravate the political crisis. “I would like all the participants in the process — Verkhovna Rada, the Cabinet of Ministers, and society — to understand that we are losing too much time on this political fuss,” the premier told journalists, adding, “We’re all human. It is extremely hard to work in the atmosphere of never-ending debates and forecasts about the future government.”
“Intellect plus nerves. One of these is not enough,” says the advert of F С dor Bondarchuk’s talk show “Chair.” What is not enough in our case is, first of all, clear “rules of the game.” It is they, not only the portfolios, that should be the object of talks. So far, all talk has seemed to pivot on which faction will support a certain candidature in exchange for certain offices in the future government. For example, is Regions of Ukraine prepared to sacrifice, if necessary, its influence over the ministries of finance and the fuel-and-energy complex for the sake of Viktor Yanukovych’s victory? Or will Labor Ukraine, with its leader Serhiy Tyhypko tipped for National Bank governorship, waive friendship with the Kinakh-led Party of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs? Does it make sense for Democratic Initiatives to claim the portfolio of one of the vice premiers (experts think Volodymyr Semynozhenko, now in charge of humanitarian policies in the Cabinet, does not have to worry)? And will any of the candidates (for example, the aforesaid Yanukovych) be able to satisfy the appetites of Our Ukraine just to enlist its support? And, moreover, what for? Will the claim staking forces find professionals in their ranks?
On the other hand, judging by the comments of activists, OU has several — diametrically opposed at that — viewpoints about the premier race.
There also are other questions to answer. Will the parliamentary majority choose one prime ministerial contender or will it suggest that the president select one out of several seekers? According to the head of state’s permanent representative in parliament, Oleksandr Zadorozhny, the former option would be preferable. Is the premier’s candidacy to be discussed in a package with those of ministers? Will the premier’s race cement the parliamentary majority or, on the contrary, will the loss of control over backstage and separate deals cause, as NDP leader Valery Pustovoitenko gloomily predicts, the coalition to collapse? Finally, according to what principle will the majority factions and groups share out ministerial chairs (it will be recalled that it is still the question of a gentleman’s agreement because parliament will only secure the right to form a government after the required amendments have been made to the Constitution)?
For example, asked by Interfax- Ukraine, SDPU(O) fraction leader Leonid Kravchuk said the coalition government would be formed by way of quotas and algorithms (?! — Ed.): government offices will be evaluated by a certain number of points, while the pretensions of factions will be limited by their proportional representation in Verkhovna Rada.
(In particular, the SDPU(O) faction leader believes that his faction can lay claim, on the basis of its numerical strength, to the portfolios of education, the economy, and emergencies.) Moreover, Kravchuk says, the interests of factions will rank third, while the first and second rungs will be taken by national interests and readiness to serve in the government as a “united professional body.” I would love to share Mr. Kravchuk’s optimism, but something holds me back.
As Mr. Zadorozhny told journalists, the majority’s coordination board will today hold today its “final” session at which each of the faction leaders should report on the opinion of his faction.
After all, it is still the president who has the final say — as long as the current government pattern remains in force.
