Leonid Kravchuk is known as “the sly fox of Ukrainian politics” for his political flair and intuition. He always correctly grasps the significance of every moment. Ukraine’s first president is in favor of establishing a coalition consisting of the Yulia Tymoshenko Bloc (BYuT) and the Party of Regions. Moreover, he thinks that at this stage Ukraine may even benefit from such a political hybrid.
Mr. Kravchuk, last Friday you said in a TV interview that you consider a BYuT-Party of Regions coalition a lesser evil. Why?
“As you know, there are three possible scenarios: the revival of the democratic coalition, early elections, and a coalition of the BYuT and the Party of Regions. I do not think that now, when the Presidential Secretariat is issuing ultimatums and conditions to the BYuT, a democratic coalition can be restored. As for an early election, a new Verkhovna Rada is most likely to have the same lineup as now. The current president will also remain in office. We will see the same problems all over again.
“So I think that either there should be simultaneous parliamentary and presidential elections, or the BYuT should forge a coalition with the Party of Regions. Judging by the results of the ICTV phone-in survey, 94 percent of callers opted for a BYuT-PR coalition. Naturally, people don’t want another early election. It may be unnatural and illogical to mate a grass snake with a hedgehog, but Ukraine’s interests are at issue here.
“In the past 17 years none of the political forces has had a clear advantage. There has always been a tug-of-war. Today it may even be a good thing for these two parties, which have such different platforms, to strike an alliance. They will have to seek the golden mean in order to vote together for the election law and amendments to the Constitution of Ukraine. This is precisely what we need.
“If this coalition (let us call it conditional, or interim), passes the necessary economic and social laws, streamlines the governmental machine, and adopts a law on domestic and foreign policies, it will pass a test in full view of the people of Ukraine. And early parliamentary elections can be held simultaneously with the presidential ones in 2010. This is my vision of an optimal way out of the situation.”
According to Ukrainska Pravda, there is a possibility that Yushchenko will dissolve parliament even if the BYuT and the Party of Regions officially form a coalition.
“The main thing is that nobody should try to violate the Constitution. I am cautioning everyone against this. The president cannot interpret whether the coalition is patriotic or not. If it has been formed lawfully and constitutionally, the president cannot say if it is good or bad. Only the people can do this. The current situation is so complicated that any unconstitutional actions may lead to a conflict. And whoever does this and pushes Ukraine into a conflict, this conflict will go down in history as a bloody one. My duty today is to warn and to ask that there not be any deviation from the Constitution even by an iota. And no one should seize the right to interpret the Constitution.”
By all accounts, Tymoshenko has not reached a decision about whether to opt for a coalition with the Party of Regions. She always relies on her electorate, so perhaps she is afraid that voters will not understand her.
“I repeat: 94 percent of the people who phoned in to ICTV voted for a PR-BYuT coalition. There were all kinds of people calling! People will understand everything if they are told that this is being done temporarily, and that nobody is abandoning their principles and platforms: we are uniting today to make things better for Ukraine, not worse. Then each of us will contest the elections with our own platform, and the winner will rule our country for five years. This can be easily explained. There is logic and flexibility in the world. There are decisions that are intended for some period of time and others, for eternity. You must not be an obstinate goat and refuse to do what the time and the situation demand.”
Both the BYuT and the PR may experience cadre problems because there are two candidates for the premiership.
“Such problems will definitely arise, but they can be resolved because this is being done for a certain period only. This is an ad hoc coalition, which means that momentary concessions can be made. Ukraine is in dire straits, and I do not want our country to be drawn into a conflict. If there is a chance to avoid confrontations and conflicts, we should seize it in the name of the Ukrainian people.
“Of course, there are blinkered and hidebound people who only think twice a month or when they sleep. But we must not rely on this breed!”
My last question is: What are the root causes of the BYuT voting together with the PR on Sept. 2?
“Tymoshenko herself explained the root causes at her press conference and in the Freedom of Speech TV program. But in my opinion, the most deep-seated cause is that random people came to power – they don’t understand what power is. And I am totally convinced that we are demanding too much of them. They are not mature enough to deal with these requirements. They look on power as a family situation, domestic relations of sorts. Power is power – it should be respected. As soon as personal, family, and nepotistic relations emerge, as soon as somebody places himself above the Constitution, the government loses its prestige. Unfortunately, we have this kind of government today.”
