On February 16 Verkhovna Rada successfully passed the first stage of the would-be “end of the parliamentary world” as SPU leader Oleksandr Moroz had predicted the date would mark the Ukrainian Parliament’s dissolution. Moreover, contrary to such bleak forecasts, the Parliament of the Third Convocation joint stock company is not only alive and kicking. The parliamentary minority has been back for the past couple of days, albeit on condition that it reserve certain privileges such as assuming no responsibility for whatever decisions are made (“the majority is passing the bills, so let them bear the responsibility”); instead, the minority will lash out at every such bill while keeping clear of any unpopular decision-making, thus getting political dividends without being a constitutional opposition.
In fact, the manner in which the Left behaves is a kind of improvisation, in that the Verkhovna Rada rules and political bills are still to be passed. “We do not expect much from the opposition bill proposed by the minority. The main problem is that all of the majority’s efforts are focused on pushing through the bills they want, ignoring the minority,” Heorhy Kriuchkov of the CPU explains.
Oleksandr Zinchenko (SDPUo) notes that “The majority has enough votes to make decisions. However, it would be even better if the Left duly participated in the voting.”
However, the Left seems to have settled on the nay tactic, while their attitude to the majority appears dualistic; on the one hand, they insist that “absolutely motley forces were driven together to form the majority” and that they “drew their blood” to sign allegiance to the President. On the other hand, they assure colleagues from among the majority that they must be unanimous when discussing certain issues. At the same time, the stands taken by both parts of the Verkhovna Rada now and then coincide. Thus, when deliberating the Cabinet’s proposal to repeal the fixed agricultural tax, both the minority and majority (e.g., Kateryna Vashchuk of the agriculture committee) voiced their negative attitude. Volodymyr Cherniak, another majority lawmaker, looked ill at ease, saying, “My mind tells me I must second the Cabinet’s proposal, but my heart says I mustn’t. I’m getting schizophrenic!” And so the majority has in recent days demonstrated that it will not pass all bills introduced by the government. It will become clear when discussing the budget bill, whether the majority can overcome such parliamentary schizophrenia. But they have been coping so far.
While the majority has had to settle its differences between centrifugal and centripetal forces for almost a month now, the minority faced the unity issue in its glaring fullness after the majority’s triumphant return to Verkhovna Rada. This issue has remained pressing ever since. As of February 16, the CPU faction has lost three members after Shtepa followed Zvonorzh and Druziuk who quit earlier. It is anyone’s guess how many more will pull out at this sharp bend in the Communist faction’s road.
The CPU leadership, however, seems to have pulled itself together after the initial shock of defeat. Now a period of stabilization appears to have set in. Considering that the CPU faction betrayed quite a few comrades dissenting from the party’s strategy after January 21, further uncertainty and absence of a clearly defined action plan may be bad for the vanquished fraction’s morale and numerical strength. Yet the Communists’ decision to resume participation in the session seems a good substitute for such plan. “We will quickly respond to all issues emerging in the audience,” The Day was told by Oleh Hrachov, member of the CPU CC Presidium. The near future will show just how effective this tactic is.
