Ukraine’s president and parliament are striving to find a way out of the political deadlock. The parties failed to form a new ruling coalition by the deadline set by the president, and now Viktor Yushchenko has the constitutional power to dissolve the Rad
After Yulia Timoshenko’s party unanimously declared its readiness to rejoin the original orange coalition with the Our Ukraine party, all eyes were on the president. Yushchenko could persuade his party to give the democratic union another chance. Many expected Timoshenko’s proposal would at least be discussed, but instead Yushchenko continued the blame-game of the last month, saying Tymoshenko almost led the country into the abyss. Experts say it’s all part of Yushchenko’s plan. “The presidential campaign is due to kick off soon. And Yushchenko understands that if Timoshenko stays as prime minister for another six months, he doesn’t stand a chance at being re-elected. That’s because her rating is above 25 percent and his barely exceeds 5 percent. So he has to get rid of her somehow. And the only way is through another early election,” political analyst Mikhail Pogribinsky explains. But it also isn’t easy for the iron lady of Ukrainian politics. Many believe her willingness to fulfill some of Yushchenko’s ultimatums and revive the orange coalition isn’t really justified by a wish to save the country’s political system, but rather by personal ambition. “Her actions are also connected to a future election campaign. She wants to show that she’s the one who fought till the very end to keep the coalition alive. She understands though that it won’t work out. But she wants to show to her electorate that it is Yushchenko who’s to blame,” says Pogribinsky. With such developments any confidence that a coalition will be formed is slipping away. And even if the parties manage to find a compromise it’s unlikely the problems will be solved. “All variants are possible, but not for a long term,” believes Vladimir Zharihin of the CIS institute. Many observers stress that the only possible solution for Ukranian politics is an alliance of the party of regions and Yulia Timoshenko’s bloc – fierce opponents in previous years. But the latter stressed several times that it won’t even negotiate such a deal. Meanwhile, the time is ticking for the Rada with Yushchenko having the constitutional power to dissolve it at any minute. And that could come any time after he holds talks with all parties on Wednesday.