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"A collaborative political resource." |
Will Yuschenko's Coalition Collapse?
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| Contributor | 411 Name Removed |
| Last Edited | 411 Name Removed Jan 18, 2005 09:29pm |
| Category | Analysis |
| News Date | Jan 18, 2005 12:00am |
| Description | While Ukraine 's president-elect Viktor Yushchenko deliberates about whom to choose for prime minister (see EDM, January 10), differences within his motley team are threatening to break it up from within. With Yushchenko's victory, the very broad coalition backing him, consisting of nationalists, market liberals, populists, socialists, political idealists, and those who simply jumped on the bandwagon, has probably lost its raison d'etre.
Near insurmountable policy differences among Yushchenko's allies have come to the fore over the last week. On January 14, Socialist leader Oleksandr Moroz submitted to parliament a bill calling for elevating Russian to "official language" status on par with Ukrainian. The 1996 Ukrainian constitution, which provides no status whatsoever for Russian, has so far been one of the major achievements of the nationalists who form the core of Yushchenko's Our Ukraine bloc. Moroz's bill will be very difficult for them to digest.
Populist leader Yulia Tymoshenko, who is the junior partner in her and Yushchenko's People's Power coalition, is also ready to quarrel with Moroz. Speaking at a press conference on January 15, Tymoshenko pledged to torpedo the constitutional reform passed in December, which provides for expanding parliament's authority at the expense of President Yushchenko's. But the constitutional reform is the main condition on which Moroz agreed to back Yushchenko in the elections. Meanwhile Moroz's Socialists have hinted that they would break ranks with Yushchenko if they do not get top posts in his cabinet. "The Socialist Party will not be part of the government if it has no chance of being responsible for it," the party said in a January 15 statement. |
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