Ukraine's Pro-West Coalition Fights for its Survival
Ukraine's pro-EU ruling coalition pulled back from the brink on Thursday after one junior partner withdrew while a populist party announced plans to step in and pull the country "out of the abyss."
The war-scarred former Soviet republic has been riven by weeks of political chaos that culminated in a failed bid by parliament on Tuesday to oust Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk's government over its perceived failure to fight graft.
Ukrainian media and analysts say lawmakers who refused to back Yatsenyuk's dismissal were believed to represent the interests of three top billionaires who have dominated the country's politics for years.
The failed vote prompted ex-prime minister Yulia Tymoshenko -- a co-leader of the 2004 Orange Revolution -- to withdraw the 19 members of her Batkivshchyna (Fatherland) party from the government-led European Ukraine coalition on Wednesday.
She accused Yatsenyuk and his ministers of being stooges of shady tycoons and called on other lawmakers "who care about the country" to follow suit.
Her call was answered on Thursday by the socially-oriented Samopomich (Self-Reliance) party's announcement that it too was joining the opposition.
The party's parliamentary leader Oleg Berezyuk said "Samopomich can no longer stand in alliance with other political forces that joined an oligarch-led takeover of parliament."
The two groups' decisions temporarily left President Petro Poroshenko and Yatsenyuk -- whose allied parties hold 217 seats -- just short of the 226-vote majority required to pass laws.
The possibility of the coalition's collapse and lawmakers' subsequent failure to form a new one within a month would give the president the right to call new legislative polls.
Poroshenko said on Tuesday he would prefer not to use that option unless absolutely essential.
Polls show support for both him and Yatsenyuk plunging and suggest they would fare poorly if snap elections were called.
Both Tymoshenko's party and Samopomich would likely make gains that turn them into a potent force capable of standing up to the president and prime minister's efforts to push through the unpopular belt-tightening measures needed to secure foreign aid.
But Ukraine's two leaders were given a reprieve on Thursday when the Radical Party's populist leader Oleg Lyashko said he was ready to add his 21 seats to those of the president and prime ministers' parties.
His entry would preserve the ruling coalition but also leave it hostage to the whims of Lyashko -- a nationalist made famous by his bizarre antics in parliament and firebrand rhetoric.
"We are ready to take part in the formation of a new coalition that has a new program," Lyashko said in televised remarks.
"We are ready to form a new government capable of pulling the country out of the abyss."
The Ukrainska Pravda new site quoted sources as saying Lyashko met the prime minister and several other top government officials for two hours on Wednesday.
The Radical Party leader himself said had also spoken by phone to Poroshenko and would probably meet him in person on Thursday night.
Source: Agence France Presse
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