First blood
Last Thursday Ukraine’s parliamentarians sprinkled President Yushchenko’s path to the parliamentary rostrum with blood. The blood came from the nose of Our Ukraine faction leader Mykola Martynenko, who was injured by fellow parliamentarian Oleksandr Bondarchuk of the Communist Party in a skirmish that was sparked by Martynenko’s attempt to remove a poster from the presidential loge with the inscription “Where are the ten steps toward the people?” which the Communists had hung there a minute earlier. Heading in the general direction of the members of the CPU faction, Martynenko had a friendly expression on his face. To all appearances, he intended to settle the matter peacefully. But Comrade Bondarchuk turned out to be unexpectedly aggressive. Martynenko had hardly uttered a word when he was caught up in a brawl. The clash was brief but intense. The two adversaries grappled on the floor while partisans from both camps hurried to their rescue. On entering the session hall, Speaker Volodymyr Lytvyn stopped dead in his tracks, but the ringing speaker’s bell somewhat accelerated the peace process. Bondarchuk was impatient to resume the fight, but Our Ukraine members literally shielded Martynenko with their bodies, while he tried to stanch his nosebleed. Minutes later he left the session hall and returned dressed in a new suit, when Viktor Yushchenko was already well into his speech.
The president was calm and spoke in a confident, even voice, frequently consulting his notes. His almost hour-long speech was substantial and touched on many issues. At the beginning and end of his speech and twice halfway through President Yushchenko urged all the political forces to unite “in the name of Ukraine.” “We belong to different branches of power and have different ideological preferences. Although this makes us different, this doesn’t make us adversaries. Enough fighting; there is enough work for everybody,” the president said.
He spent the first 20 minutes summing up the results of the past year, emphasizing Ukraine’s growing international role and the significance of building harmonious relations with all foreign entities. “The modern Ukrainian nation has formed and has real chances of joining the developed countries of the world,” he summed up. The president laid particular emphasis on the fulfillment of his own election agenda entitled “Ten steps toward the people,” discussing higher pensions and wages, improving macroeconomic indicators, and accomplishments in the sphere of combating “total corruption.” He did not mention the natural gas crisis or the milk and meat crises, even though many in the audience expected him to comment on these issues.
It was quite interesting to observe the behavior of the audience. Of course, most of those present listened attentively, but with a distinct trace of tense interest. Almost all of the Our Ukraine members sat with their heads bowed low as if taking notes. Ihor Hryniv of the Reforms and Order Party at first struggled with the exhaustion that soon overpowered him and he dozed off, hiding behind the back of fellow faction member Serhiy Soboliev. Leonid Kravchuk was sullen, pressing his temples and closely examining the bas-reliefs above the parliamentary presidium. It looked as though the first Ukrainian president felt deeply ashamed to hear the third president’s words. Yuliy Yoffe, who was sitting nearby, ignored parliamentary etiquette and was engrossed in the weekly television guide.
Meanwhile, President Yushchenko moved on to the main part of his speech, namely “the directions of the new strategy of state- building in the nearest future.” The president believes that the introduction of the new political model with its unbalanced distribution of powers among the branches of power poses threatens to destabilize the country’s system of power in the wake of the March 2006 elections.
Speaking of political priorities, he stressed: “All political forces must join the dialogue; the opposition may not self-exclude itself, relishing only in its criticisms of the government.” As the guarantor of the Constitution, Viktor Yushchenko promised not to seek the invalidation of the constitutional changes now in effect. Still, he did not hide his dissatisfaction with them or the general format of interaction between the various branches of power, one unfortunate result of which is that the Constitutional Court has yet to be sworn in. Yushchenko does not plan to have the Constitutional Court review of the constitutional validity of the ambiguous bill on local self-governance No. 2222 before the March elections. Instead, he proposed forming a multilateral constitutional commission that would prepare a new draft of the Constitution and submit it for the public’s approval in a referendum. The audience reacted with murmurs to the president’s initiative and his subsequent quote of Napoleon’s famous aphorism, “Politics is destiny.”
President Yushchenko also promised to implement economic goals as part of specific nationwide state programs, including programs to revive the countryside, optimize education, develop high technologies, introduce family health care, and improve the general health of the nation.
The president ended his speech with a repeated call to politicians of all stripes to reconcile and join forces, and realize their colossal responsibility to future generations, after which he promptly exited the session hall.
In the corridors parliamentarians offered extremely contradictory evaluations of the president’s speech. “I did not hear anything specific,” said SDPU(O) faction leader Leonid Kravchuk, adding: “His address was very philosophical. He outlined a general strategy for the country’s development, but said almost nothing about the priorities for the nearest term, that is, in 2006. Meanwhile, the president’s annual address to parliament should contain such specifics. Global tasks could be outlined in a different format.” Valeriy Asadchev, member of the pro- presidential Ukrainian People’s Party, emphasized the “strategy of partnership” proposed by Viktor Yushchenko. “To extend a hand to former opponents and call for unification in the nation’s name is a truly presidential thing to do,” he noted.
No matter what the parliamentarians said about the president’s speech, the MPs proved to be more tolerant of the head of state than he himself feels about parliament. Speaking with journalists during a recent book fair held in the Verkhovna Rada, Viktor Yushchenko said that he feels “complex psychological discomfort in the hall of parliament,” and the parliamentarians seem to be “exhausted and electrified.” The president also pointed out that within the walls of parliament “one cannot speak about eternal issues, especially systemic ones. Such things are not received well here. This is not the right subject, menu, or mood...It is something that is departing, and obviously we have to accept it the way it is.”
