A total of 257 members of parliament voted for Volodymyr Hroisman as new prime minister, and 239 for a reshuffled Cabinet. Yet they failed to decide on the still vacant office of public health minister. Verkhovna Rada deputies of first convocations are indignant – they say it has never occurred in independent Ukraine’s history that the same resolution dismissed the old and appointed the new prime minister. Besides, the same document contains a clause on canceling the resolution that pronounced the Yatseniuk Cabinet’s performance as unsatisfactory several months ago. Lawyers claim that dismissing the previous premier and appointing a new one are different constitutional procedures.
It is also important that, under the Constitution, the premier is to be appointed to office on the advice of the president who in turn receives a proposal from the coalition of parliamentary factions. But in this case we can see a consolidated parliamentary resolution which was not even posted on the Verkhovna Rada’s website. Only some MPs made it public in social networking sites. Incidentally, there should have been separate votes for the appointment of the ministers of defense and foreign affairs, also on the president’s recommendation. Lawyers conclude that there were a lot of other breaches of constitutional norms.
Juridical flaws in the appointment of a new government go side by side with the absence of political responsibility. This move, in fact a package vote, shows that there were serious fears that MPs would vote for Yatseniuk’s dismissal but stop short of voting for Hroisman’s appointment. Add to this that, in the conditions of a war and a difficult economic situation, this country saw endless months-long backstage haggles without any public discussion of candidatures. As a result, domestic and international confidence in the current leadership is catastrophically falling down, although there have been so many chances since the Euromaidan.
As a result, the new coalition in fact consists of two factions, Petro Poroshenko Bloc (PPB) and People’s Front (PF), which resorted to party-switching, an old and well-tested method of Kuchma and Yanukovych, and scraped up 227 votes plus the votes of situational allies among the former Regionnaires. In other words, it is the old coalition known as European Ukraine, while the factions Samopomich, Radical Party, and Batkivshchyna have just dropped out. Neither the three latter factions nor the Opposition Bloc voted for the new government, which also means that the PPB (125 votes) and the PF (72 votes) were helped by those who used to help Yanukovych in parliament. What followed the vote on the new Cabinet also revealed the dubious strength of this old-new entity. The Hroisman government’s program was approved in a third attempt only, after a consultation recess.
Photo by Ruslan KANIUKA, The Day
The new Cabinet consists of Stepan Kubiv, First Vice-Prime Minister, Minister of Economic Development; Volodymyr Kistion, Vice-Premier for ATO; Ivanna Klympush-Tsintsadze, Vice-Premier for European and Euro-Atlantic Integration; Pavlo Rozenko, Vice-Premier; Viacheslav Kyrylenko, Vice-Premier for Humanitarian Affairs; Hennadii Zubko, Vice-Premier, Minister of Regional Development; Oleksandr Danyliuk, Minister of Finance; Olersandr Saienko, Minister in Charge of the Cabinet’s Secretariat; Stepan Poltorak, Minister of Defense; Pavlo Klimkin, Minister of Foreign Affairs; Arsen Avakov, Minister of Internal Affairs; Pavlo Petrenko, Minister of Justice; Andrii Reva, Minister of Social Policies; Ostap Semerak, Minister of Ecology and Natural Resources; Taras Kutovy, Minister for Agrarian Policies; Yurii Stets, Minister for Information Policies; Lilia Hrynevych, Minister of Education and Science; Ihor Zhdanov, Minister of Youth and Sport; Yevhen Nyshchuk, Minister of Culture; Volodymyr Omelian, Minister of Infrastructure; Vadym Chernysh, Minister for Temporarily Occupied Territories and Internally Displaced Persons; and Ihor Nosalyk, Minister of Energy and Coal Mining.
In spite of the major problems that the leadership itself has created, this Cabinet still has chances to launch reforms. Hroisman has already shown his character during the negotiations. What is needed now is a will to carry out reforms.
COMMENTARIES
“THE NEW GOVERNMENT HAS NO TIME FOR DAWDLING”
Dmytro LUBINETS, Member of Parliament; Secretary, Committee for Rules and Regulations; Petro Poroshenko Bloc:
“This is in fact the same coalition. There were 304 MPs in the beginning, then three factions dropped out, but the people who had left those factions stayed behind in the coalition. So there have never been fewer than 230 MPs in the coalition. The PPB and People’s Front gathered the necessary 226 MPs to be able to submit the new premier’s candidacy as per a constitutional provision.
“Now the new government has no time for dawdling. But we are very pleased that the MPs who represent Donetsk and Luhansk oblasts in the coalition’s two factions were heard at last. A ministry for the ATO, the occupied territories, and migrants has been formed at last. Besides, there is a vice-premier in charge of this very issue.
“As for the first steps the Cabinet is expected to take now, it is about public utility rates, a thing that concerns ordinary people. They should be not just revised but reduced. I can’t understand on what grounds it was planned to raise the household gas price to more than nine hryvnias per cubic meter, with due account of the gas purchase cost price and what Ukraine itself can produce. Likewise, it’s not clear about electricity prices. Besides, it is necessary to increase pensions, the minimal subsistence level, and minimal wages. People are aware of this country being in a state of war and are prepared to endure hardships, but the new government must show that it has begun to take care of them.
“We mostly criticized the Yatseniuk government, particularly the Ministry of Economic Development, for failure to take steps aimed at this country’s economic development and job creation in as many as 18 months. The launching of a few new businesses was a result of local initiatives, not of the Cabinet’s efforts. As for Donetsk oblast, it was just terrible because this ministry was doing nothing but shutting down enterprises.
“Volodymyr Hroisman has made a very pleasant impression on me. Yes, when he was the parliamentary speaker, he not always managed to get the time limit observed. But the brand-new premier is able to take decisive steps. In 18 months, Hroisman corrected faults in the work of the Verkhovna Rada staff – he dismissed the chief of staff Zaichuk and removed the Russian ATMs and company offices that occupied a part of parliament’s premises without permission. Now all of parliament’s structural divisions are bringing in a profit.”
“HROISMAN SHOWED DURING THE GOVERNMENTAL TALKS THAT HE IS QUITE A SELF-SUFFICIENT AND STRONG POLITICIAN”
Andrii TETERUK, Member of Parliament, People’s Front:
“I am pinning great hopes on the current government – it is the last attempt to save this country from an artificial political crisis. Politically, we’ve gone for broke, for if this country ends up ungoverned in a time of war and a bitter public disappointment, ex-Regionnaires may be reelected to power. This will in fact be a bloody revanche, for we saw what their previous term in power led to. Being aware of all the challenges we are facing, we must hold the situation in check, support the government, and continue the reforms the Yatseniuk government launched.
“It was said earlier that Hroisman is not a self-sufficient politician and depends on Petro Poroshenko. But he showed during the governmental talks that he is quite a self-sufficient and strong politician who knows what he wants, what goals he sets to himself, and how he is going to achieve them. So only time will show how successful he will be, while People’s Front will support and track him in order to ward off any attempts to ‘tame’ him and impair this country’s interests.”
“THE PRESIDENT WILL NOW BE RESPONSIBLE FOR EVERYTHING IN UKRAINE”
Andrii NOVAK, chairman, Committee of Ukrainian Economists:
“The emergence of a new premier and the so-called new government finally seals the usurpation of power by the president. Apart from being an immediate superior of the uniformed services and having ‘his own’ National Bank governor and the personally-appointed chiefs of oblast and raion administrations, he has now a prime minister ‘of his own.’ In fact, the president will now be responsible for everything in Ukraine – not only for the military and political (as the Supreme Commander-in-Chief), but also for the sociopolitical situation.
“In the Cabinet itself, we have only seen some minor replacements based on the principle of political quotas and haggling rather than on that of professionalism. What is worse, there was no competition of candidates’ programs when the prime minister’s candidature and the whole Cabinet were discussed. None of the likely premier candidates submitted a program to be discussed. It was only the question of who will assume one office or another. This means that the new Cabinet will not be guided by a pre-approved strategy but will go on working on the basis of ‘manual control,’ which absolutely all the previous governments did. In other words, nothing will change, unfortunately. Even the first appointments show that, instead of seeing deregulation which calls for a reduced number of governmental agencies, we will see the establishment of new bodies of power, new ministries, and new vice-premier offices.
“After all, we should expect this government to continue the policies of the previous Cabinet. What the new premier read out in parliament as a program only confirms my words. For this so-called government action program, which was obviously read out to persuade parliament to approve it and give the government immunity from dismissal for a year, contained no figures in any field. But if there are no figures, this means there are no concrete goals and deadlines, and, hence, there is no control over responsibility. The government will be unaccountable, for there are no target figures to check the fulfillment of one’s promises and commitments. I think this government will hold out for six months or a year at most. The year of absolution may not save this Cabinet, for the Verkhovna Rada itself can pass a vote of no confidence in the government at any time, and, after all, there is such thing as snap parliamentary elections aimed at forming a new coalition and, in the final analysis, a new Cabinet.”
“THE PROCEDURE OF VOTING FOR THE CABINET IS ILLEGITIMATE BUT PREDICTABLE”
Viktor MUSIIAKA, Professor of Law at Kyiv Mohyla Academy; Member of Parliament of the 2nd and 4th convocations:
“I am not surprised that, as the result of a package vote, Yatseniuk was dismissed, Hroisman was appointed, and the clause on the old government’s ineffectiveness was deleted. Not because it is legitimate. It is illegitimate, but the law has long been of just a relative importance in this country. Moreover, a law can be adopted here for the sake of somebody or something and then be demonstratively pronounced inappropriate. Just recall the instance when in 2010 the Constitutional Court pronounced as unconstitutional the changes to the Constitution made by way of a package vote. Likewise, the current situation is also complicated and an immediate result was needed – so they piled it all up and voted. This was all done to keep this ‘house’ from tumbling down, for if they had voted according to the procedure, this would have upped the risks and produced different results – much to somebody’s chagrin. It is awful that we can speak of these things but are practically unable to do anything to prevent this violation of law. The law turns into a mere formality even in such pivotal moments as formation of the government. The Constitution should have both the carrot and the stick, but the latter is absent, which means that there is no responsibility.”
