Tarasiuk again shut out of government meeting
Preparations had clearly been made for Tarasiuk’s arrival. Three MPs from the Party of Regions - Vladyslav Lukianov, Volodymyr Zubanov, and Yurii Miroshnishenko - stood in the hall in front of the government meeting room blocking Tarasiuk’s entry. He came accompanied by three MPs: Viacheslav Koval, Yaroslav Kendzior, and Mykola Katerynchuk. They tried to break through and then all hell broke loose. The fight continued in a room located between the press center and the room where the government holds its enlarged meetings. Fortunately, no one was injured
“I will definitely be submitting a grievance to the Prosecutor General. They are breaking the law. Their actions contain elements of a crime,” Tarasiuk told journalists after the incident. When he was saying goodbye to the journalists, he said, “Until the next show staged for you by the Party of Regions.”
Arsenii Yatseniuk, the Presidential Secretariat’s representative in the Cabinet of Ministers, left the meeting in protest. “I was trying to convince the government to let Borys Tarasiuk join the meeting of the Cabinet of Ministers in order to resolve the conflict. Unfortunately, the members of the government did not listen to me,” he said adding that for half an hour he tried to persuade the ministers that the decision of the Shevchenkivsky district court in Kyiv was valid and that they should avoid “turning the executive power into a laughingstock.”
The government has decided to appeal to parliament and the president “regarding the situation with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine” and to propose that an acting foreign affairs minister be appointed. “It would be better if the president determines who this person will be. If the president fails to make this decision, then the Verkhovna Rada will decide,” said the prime minister. He emphasized that this decision has to be adopted as soon as possible because “the state cannot function in these conditions when the foreign affairs minister is not working.”
Next Wednesday Tarasiuk will go to a cabinet meeting again, this time with bailiffs. Evidently, President Yushchenko is making an all-out effort to keep his minister in office. The problem is not so much the minister himself or the fact that the country does not have any other worthy candidates for this position-rather, it is the president’s desire to show who is ruling the country.
COMMENT
Viktor NEBOZHENKO, political scientist
The president and the prime minister need to get together more frequently instead of delegating to their aides. Aides are always more radical than politicians themselves.
If Vladimir Putin’s visit takes place in the same extremely explosive situation as Yanukovych’s trip to Washington did, this won’t earn any bonus points for Yanukovych. The president and the prime minister need to sort things out, at least for the time being.
Fights are no good, of course. It is not only our image abroad that is beginning to suffer-the physical bodies of our politicians are being hurt as well. Somebody has to put a stop to this immediately. The president and the prime minister need to agree at least on two or three buildings in Kyiv where these kinds of conflicts are impossible. All the rest cannot be stopped, apparently. And Tarasiuk should know better than to subject his ribs so easily to the pounding by strong and energetic deputies, who one year ago could not have even imagined that they would be so fortunate as to be able to beat a minister.
In the present situation Tarasiuk cannot be stripped of his office. This would be another cul-de-sac.
