Week’s milestones. Revolt in Cabinet, Coalition trends, and irreplaceable Shokin

A minister from Arseniy Yatsenyuk’s government issued an ultimatum to the president's team. The parliamentary coalition is preparing to a revolt of minority factions and an attempt of fractious radicals to return in a gesture of last resort. Prosecutor General Viktor Shokin decided to remind about his own irreplaceability.

The government crisis in Ukraine is developing in a unique scenario that is not characteristic of civilized states. No, ministers across the world announce their resignations all the time, but in recent years only in Ukraine has a rebellious government member put forward such wide-ranging conditions for his return to performing his official duties. Abromavicius not only wants his abuser to quit the big politics, he also seeks dismissal of the prosecutor general, the change of the prime minister and of the whole government’s format in a technocratic direction. I'm afraid that the ultimatum of Aivaras Abromavicius will have an opposite effect and will not be able to change the situation in the executive branch for the better. Though it is clear even without the Abromavicius’ statements that the preservation of “monitors” over public financial flows in such a deep crisis would be too much of a luxury for Ukraine.

Demonstrative return of the four ministers has allowed Arseniy Yatsenyuk not only to say that it’s "one for all and all for one" now in the Cabinet, but also go for a counter-attack. It looks like the tension is building up ahead of the upcoming government’s report to the Rada.

Photo from UNIAN

The situation in the parliamentary coalition also remains tense. The BPP faction is gradually losing distinctively colorful characters, remaining though the Rada’s largest force. Ihor Kononenko, accused by Abromavicius of putting pressure, has resigned from the post of deputy chief of BPP. Meanwhile, the faction head Yuriy Lutsenko is trying to make a good face over a bad game, but he doesn’t look too convincing. Angry with the return to the government of the man they once nominated for a ministerial post, Agrarian Minister Oleksiy Pavlenko, the Samopomich MPs have publically forecast that the days of this government are over. It seems that quitting the coalition is perceived within the party ranks as something inevitable that could lead to the early parliamentary elections, from which the political force will benefit. Yulia Tymoshenko has apparently been coordinating her actions with Samopomich head, the Lviv mayor Andriy Sadoviy. However, she found time to hold intensive political consultations overseas: Even without hyperactivity of the G7 ambassadors caused by Abromavicius’ demarche, Tymoshenko knows who has an influence over the Ukrainian politics and where it comes from.

Only the adepts of political science fiction can believe in the ability of the coalition to begin work on the qualitatively new principles after a series of scandals in the government backstage. There are no objective reasons for any regeneration of the deputy corps, as well as the reasons for the new faces to appear. The parliamentary majority prefers not to mess with the president, sometimes it passes laws that can soothe public opinion, and tries to solve personal issues. Since the parliamentarian corps is not uniform, its members have different priorities: someone fights for their own bright political future, someone - for material interests, and remarkably few parliamentarians fight for the interests of their voters. It is no wonder that half of the Ukrainians surveyed by a Rating group stand in favor of snap parliamentary elections.

Shokin and Hrytsak reported to the President about the discovery of weapons that were fired in the Maidan / Photo from UNIAN

Viktor Shokin took advantage of the situation for an emergency strengthening of his position. The doublet result was spectacular at first glance. A duet report, together with the SBU [Ukraine’s Security Service] chief  Vasyl Hrytsak to the president on a discovery of the weapons used to kill the Heavenly Hundred in the Maidan, and his very complimentary interview broadcast by Inter TV channel, where Shokin flaunted his independence and equidistance. It seems that the list of supporters of prosecutor general’s resignation once gathered in the Rada by MP Yehor Sobolev, which later disappeared, will hardly amount 150 signatures, even if miraculously found. And Shokin surely knows about it.

Yevgeny Magda

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