Hromada leader Pavlo Lazarenko, who has just returned from France, did
not feel like a winner despite the publicity created for him by Rukh and
the People's Democratic Party. With regard to the "excelling" Rukh, Lazarenko
told The Day that "some people really wanted me to leave so that they could
blame all their sins on me."
The Hromada leader did not succeed in his attempts to lend an ideological
coloring to the conflict by saying that "Rukh was driven by some kind of
jealousy because I worked very closely with the socialists in the European
Council Parliament Assembly."
Apparently, the Hromada leader's nervousness is based mostly on the
fact that while he was out of the country, the mythical rumor about an
imminent split in the Hromada faction turned into a reality. Although Pavlo
Lazarenko claimed that "there would be no split in Hromada; there is nothing
to split, and we have never been as monolithic as we are now," he did acknowledge
that after the New Year several deputies might leave the faction. "The
most we can expect to happen is the migration of two or three people,"
admitted the Hromada leader (a source close to Hromada even told The
Day those two or three names: Tymoshenko, Turchynov, and Yeliashkevych).
It was very obvious that Lazarenko did not feel comfortable discussing
this subject. Answering the question of how reliable the information is
about several "top" Hromada members being persistently offered ministerial
portfolios, Lazarenko said abruptly, "Good for them!" and walked away.
Interestingly enough, some parliamentary circles are already naming Kyrylenko,
a candidate for ministerial post, to be the first outgoing Hromada member.






