Yushchenko might force political enemies to unite
Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko has given the country's bitterly rivalling parties till Tuesday evening to form a ruling coalition. On Monday he also reiterated his readiness to dissolve the parliament if deputies fail to agree.
The coalition in question is between the bloc of Yulia Timoshenko and the Party of Regions, led by the President’s opponent and former prime minister Viktor Yanukovich.
Earlier there were talks of the coalition between the Bloc of Yulia Timoshenko and the presidential bloc Our Ukraine People’s Self-Defence (NU-NS). Two-thirds of the Our Ukraine party are said to agree to the revival of the coalition. However, Timoshenko said for this, President Yushchenko’s decision was needed.
On Tuesday, a deputy from the presidential NU-NS bloc said the president did not give any recommendations to them to form a coalition with the Bloc of Yulia Timoshenko.
Despite once leading the ‘orange coalition’ together, Yushchenko and Timoshenko have a lot of contradictions. After the ‘orange revolution’ in November 2004, Yulia Timoshenko became the head of the government but was fired by the President after less than a year.
The Bloc of Yulia Timoshenko took part in snap parliamentary elections in September 2007 and, coming second in the race, got the opportunity to form the ruling coalition.
It hasn’t proved durable though, with Timoshenko leaving it last month.
Farce session in parliament
Tuesday’s session of the Ukrainian Parliament was closed as soon as it began, reports the Unian news agency.
Chairing the session was Deputy Parliament Speaker Tomenko, who said he had two pieces of news for the MPs – one good and one bad.
The good news was that the “evening session of the Rada is opened” and the bad news was that the “evening session of the Rada is closed”.
The next session is scheduled for Wednesday morning.
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