It seemed that some other good news will get out from Maidan again. On the contrary. People gathered in Kyiv, shouted out their dissatisfaction with Ukrainian authorities, voiced their demands to impeach the president, dissolve Verkhovna Rada and punish those responsible for the use of force, but none of these demands were met. The government is still in power and the president is not going to shorten his term of office. Demonstrators have occupied the town hall and trade union building. As long as they do not move into the city to block other buildings, the police will not attack them. The questions arise – how long this protest can last? How long will the demonstrators withstand it? How long will the authorities keep their shields up?
Expectations for the protest to spread out around the whole country and the industry to get on strike turned out to be unreal. It seems that no one has an idea how the demonstration should be terminated. The protesters themselves do not really trust their political leaders. Apart from the political front row (Yatseniuk, Klitschko, Tiahnybok) there is a council for coordinating non-governmental organizations, which is more and more critical of the politicians for lack of concept.
Selecting one candidate for the presidential election – a candidate of Maidan – would seem to be a good solution. However, there is not even a single agreement on that matter. Yatseniuk proposes Yulia Tymoshenko. If she was not able, Klitschko would do. If he did not manage, Yatseniuk would go for it. Following this scenario, leader of nationalists Tiahnybok would be the last chance for Maidan.
This reasoning is smart for it assumes that the authorities will not release Yulia Tymoshenko from prison and Klitschko will not be eligible to stand in the elections – he has not been paying taxes in Ukraine for many years now and this would be a necessary condition if changes in electoral law proposed by Party of the Regions entered into force. No wonder neither Klitschko nor Tiahnybok want to shake hands on the solution put forward by Yatseniuk.
Situation in Maidan reminds me a bit of an attempt to call general strike in Poland in 1988. Lech Walesa did not do it, but going out from the yard with workers on strike in a close rank, he managed to save his face and lead “Solidarity” to victory. The organizers of Maidan protests have not come up with similar idea so far.
European Parliament delegation will be in Kyiv next week. We will talk with everyone- from the president to the leaders of Maidan.
