Parliamentary Majority: Road to Salvation or Swan Song?

Mykhailo Syrota, leader of the Labor Ukraine fraction, spoke on behalf of 236 People’s Deputies last Thursday to announce the formation of a majority in Parliament.

Simultaneously, a Coordinating Council was set up, composed of representatives of all factions and groups to organize the majority. “All power in Verkhovna Rada must be taken over by this majority,” Leonid Kravchuk formulated the majority’s strategic objective at a news conference given by the Council. The campaign is underway, starting with the collection of signatures to oust Speaker Oleksandr Tkachenko and Vice Speaker Adam Martyniuk. 241 signatures had been collected by January 13 — and this considering that 151 would suffice. Mr. Kravchuk assured that more signatures will be collected. The next step will be the passing of a bill on the majority’s standing orders, specifying its rights and obligations. Since a roll call vote is among the key clauses of the agreement on the majority and new Parliament membership, the Coordinating Council is confident that electing a new Speaker will present no problems. In addition, the roll call procedure will make it possible to stop rigging and selling votes on the one hand and pass bills quickly and effectively on the other.

All Deputies outside the majority automatically join the opposition. Leonid Kravchuk thus described the latter’s prospects: “They must bow their heads to whatever decisions the parliamentary majority will make. If the opposition had the majority, we would bow our heads. From now on all decisions will be made by the majority on behalf of Verkhovna Rada.

At present, the opposition is very tough. It rules in Parliament without majority status and occupies important positions, both in the Verkhovna Rada leadership and committees. Apparently, this situation should be changed immediately. The majority’s plans include passing a bill on the political opposition that will define its rights and obligations.”

All things considered, the process of forming the majority, initiated by the parties of Labor Ukraine, Rebirth of the Regions, and United Social Democrats has reached its logical completion. There are, however, quite a few questions remaining open. For example, can these political forces, so very different from one another, maintain accord? As was ironically pointed out by people on the Coordinating Council, “we haven’t allocated the portfolios as yet.” They are in a great hurry. Mr. Kravchuk promised that the algorithm of the allocation of posts would be ready on January 14 (they were not). Next week they plan to hold consultations with the President and decide on electing a Speaker. Prospective candidates are already being discussed. Naturally, the lawmakers united not on any ideological principle — they admit as much. Yuliya Tymoshenko even pointed out philosophically that “the differences existing between the parties to the agreement are a guarantee of the parliamentary majority’s unity.” Indeed, this would seem a special interpretation of the law of the unity and struggle of opposites. One possible explanation is that the prospect of Parliament’s dissolution gave strong impetus to the majority- forming process. In other words, the legislators’ basic instinct of self- preservation (rather, preservation of their membership cards) led them to step over all divergences, personal political enmity, misunderstanding, and so on. We saw Hennady Udovenko and Yuri Kostenko sitting at the same table of the Coordinating Council. After the news conference they spent quite some time together, discussing the situation. The biggest question, however, is whether the factions were too late forming the majority. The referendum for the dissolution of Parliament is much closer today than it was, say, a couple of months ago, when the majority issue started being seriously discussed. Since the referendum process can be stopped only by the person that started it, the President, the main problem is whether Mr. Kuchma will consider the pro-presidential majority in Parliament sufficient. According to majority lawmakers who met with the President, he “treated the creation of the majority with understanding.” Yet if he does not intend to stop the referendum, the factions’ mating dances will prove a belated formality, albeit beautiful and mournful, like a swan song.