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Where there is no law, but every man does what is right in his own eyes, there is the least of real liberty
Henry M. Robert

Last Tuesday a Worldly-Wise President First Met the Young Parliament

13 November, 2012 - 00:00

It is unknown whether the new Parliament will see as many conflicts as the old one, but on May 12 a good sign was the ease with which it elected its temporary presidium including both allies and mutual antagonists. It was notable, for example, that Pavlo Lazarenko shook hands with Anatoly Matviyenko, albeit not without embarrassment

All President Kuchma’s speeches in Parliament, especially, his annual addresses, rigidly keep up the same tone.

They sound as if the people’s father has returned home after many years, greatly upset with what we have done in his absence, opens the eyes of the nation, and announces a new policy to overcome the crisis.

The latest presidential address to the newly elected Verkhovna Rada was no exception. Unprepared watchers might even think that it was a newly elected leader, not the chief executive who has been ruling the country almost four years, who made the speech. His criticism of the “political confrontation,” which gave rise to the factors preventing Ukraine from overcoming the crisis, seemed quite aloof.

As always, the President was most convincing where he listed facts: the financial crisis has sharpened, not only individual enterprises are now unprofitable, but whole sectors, etc.

It should be pointed out that the President’s judgment of the economic situation has of late undergone constant metamorphosis: before the election he was convincing the people that everything was all right and “only a blind man” could fail to “see the positive changes”.

Immediately after the election the President conducted a chastising session with the government where he said that what had gone on was disheartening but now once again “everything is under control.” For more details on the President’s address, see page 4.

As far, as Parliament is concerned, it started its activity fully observing the work plan which had been proposed by the preparatory commission. 417 deputies took the oath and only a small bill called Down with Banderivshchyna [an allusion to Ukrainian integral nationalist Stepan Bandera] pleased the President by showing a lack of full unanimity among the deputies, disapproving on behalf of the Communists that the current leader of Bandera’s party, Yaroslava Stetsko, read out oath. She opened the session with a rather unusual address but did not provoke a serious scandal, despite some boos from the Left wing of Verkhovna Rada.

The apotheosis of consensus in the organizational routine was the confirmation of the powers of the provisional presidium which, in addition to earlier approved Symonenko, Moroz, Matviyenko, and Kostenko, also included Lazarenko. Opening the first plenary session fell to the Communist leader, who after his nomination by the CPU Central Committee for Speaker, was not unpleased to start practicing. Incidentally, in Verkhovna Rada lobbies, faction leaders of the National Democratic Party rebuke the groundless insinuations that the “party of power” can support Petro Symonenko as the Head of Parliament in a secret ballot.

The mutiny by independent Deputies against the party structuring ran out of steam: the majority district Parliament members are now actively bolstering the younger party factions. According to estimates, as of May 12 the faction of the Social Democratic Party of Ukraine (United) rose to 30 deputies and the Greens to 23.

In general, there were no special sensations. Ukrainian parliamentarism has turned out to be as lively as ever. And that is the best news.

Photo by Valery Myloserdov, The Day

 

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