Victor Yushchenko has told journalists he will back Viktor Yanukovych for prime minister, according to the President’s press-office.
“I do understand that in the east and in the west of Ukraine results of the March vote, as well as any candidate for prime minister, arouse much controversy. I urge the nation to accept this decision, for we may now be given a unique chance to make the two banks of the Dnieper reach understanding,” he said.
“Today I am demonstrating another chance to reunite the country. I am taking this step towards parliament and hope it will use this chance constructively for the prosperity of the nation,” he said. “We have a unique chance enabling Ukraine’s parliament to work stably for five years. Will the political forces use this chance? Well, it is a question to them. But the President gives his hand to parliament, […] and gives it a chance to carry out these policies.”
Mr. Yushchenko said there were several ways to end the parliamentary crisis but neither “would have changed the results of the parliamentary ballot.”
"The March election has, in fact, proved that Ukraine has two poles in its choice. If new elections had been called, we would have received similar results,” he explained.
The President added we had “a chance to start implementing the course we declared in Maidan from scratch - the course enabling us to be politically tolerant and speak about goals that unite us…”
