As earlier reported, the leaders of Our Ukraine, Labor Ukraine, Party of Industrialists’ and Entrepreneurs, People’s Democratic Party, Agrarian Party, and Democratic Initiatives Group signed an agreement last Sunday, to form parliamentary majority. Traditionally, following the political reform initiated by the president, this majority would then get down to forming a coalition government. Good intentions, nothing out of the ordinary, considering the current situation. Or so it seems. The majority’s structure and, most importantly, their subsequent actions and statements make this coalition appear rather odd. Where is the logic, with one of its members signing an agreement with the pro-presidential forces to form a majority one day and joining an anti-presidential rally, and signing a resolution demanding the president’s retirement the next day? What did Mr. Yushchenko have in mind, declaring that the regime “does not want to embark on the road of dialog” and having a document attesting the most serious intention of four powerful (in the eyes of the opposition) factions to closely cooperate with Our Ukraine in the parliament? It would be also interesting to know precisely how the new allies are going to solve the problem of a single candidate premier, considering that the current head of government represents one of the stated majority factions, and that Labor Ukraine and Our Ukraine intend to nominate their own candidates. Incidentally, Anatoly Kinakh, perhaps without taking the factors cited into account has spoken favorably of the agreement among the five fractions. Another question is why four fragments of the former United Ukraine are not trying to reach a compromise with their former allies? The more so that a couple of weeks ago some of the activists felt sure that such a coalition was a matter of days? The Day posed these and other questions to Serhiy TIHIPKO, leader of the Entrepreneurs and Businessmen (Labor Ukraine) faction. Judging by his replies, one has to share Mr. Yushchenko’s doubts, who said, “If we have a strong enough position, we’ll have a coalition. If we don’t, it will fall apart in three days.” So far, all attempts to get him and his entourage involved in the process of building a majority have yielded, mildly speaking, confusing results.
How do you feel about Viktor Yushchenko’s conduct in signing a majority agreement with the pro-presidential factions one day and the very next day putting his hand to an opposition resolution demanding the president’s ouster?
I’m not commenting on anyone’s actions, every politician is free to act as he chooses. However, I’m certain that the agreement signed by Yushchenko and the opposition has glaring flaws. I do not support Mr. Yushchenko’s decision, but I understand that he must have acted that way largely because it was in front of the crowd and in the situation that had developed. Nevertheless, I believe that the majority talks must go on and then we’ll see. The main thing is not to stop the process.
What about political logic? Does it mean that Labor Ukraine will also take part in acts of protest with their partner?
No. As long as I’m leader of the party, I’ll do my best to keep Labor Ukraine away from such acts. As for logic, that’s not for politicians or politics.
What is there to cement your coalition with Our Ukraine – if and when? Especially in view of what Mr. Kostenko said: should any of the partners fail to support Yushchenko as a candidate premier, the alliance would be likely to collapse.
I think what can cement it is the end result we want to have from the coalition. Meaning all those changes we want to make in the political, economic, and social domains, rather than posts. I am not insisting on any cadre clauses for my faction, but am determined to carry out reforms in health care, the municipal sector, and education. In other words, I consider essential and real things most important, and I think this will keep us united.
What about that the Nine, including four factions from among your possible coalition, except Our Ukraine (which also tried to form a majority not so long ago)? We even heard that a majority based on those factions was almost ready.
That Nine formed a special body coordinating the efforts of those fractions. We did not consider forming a majority, we believed that we had first to go through the phase of communicating and negotiating with regard to Our Ukraine.
Is there a crisis of power in Ukraine?
I think that we are somewhere close to it. It could erupt unless we exert some effort to stabilize the situation. By some effort I mean setting up a constitutional committee, one that will work quickly and thus help form a coalition government.
