| Factions start negotiations on new parliamentary coalition |
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| Monday, 22 September 2008 15:24 |
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Parliamentary speaker Arseniy Yatseniuk has said that the latest meeting of the agenda-setting council involving faction leaders was held today, the Ukrainian TV channel 5 Kanal reported. It was busy working out the parliamentary agenda for tomorrow, as this is a plenary session week. Yatseniuk said that the main issue was the formation of the coalition and that "the ice has been broken". He confirmed that the Party of Regions faction has already nominated its MPs for official talks with the other four factions in Parliament. MP Andriy Klyuyev of the Party of Regions will hold talks with the Yulia Tymoshenko Bloc and MP Borys Kolesnykov with the propresidential Our Ukraine-People’s Self-Defence bloc. The OUPSD faction has also announced that it has officially begun negotiations. It even handed over its manifesto principles to those factions with which it wants to form a coalition. Unlike the Party of Regions, the OUPSD will negotiate only with two political forces, the YTB and the Lytvyn Bloc. OUPSD leader Vyacheslav Kyrylenko handed them the documents on the basis of which the factions might consider the formation of a new coalition. Speaking after the meeting, Vyacheslav Kyrylenko said: “To create a basis for the mantras about the need of a coalition which our ex-partners and, possibly, would-be partners repeated, I, on behalf of Our Ukraine and its political council, officially hand over to our colleagues the program principles for the formation of a new parliamentary coalition, to the head of the YTB faction Ivan Kyrylenko and to our colleagues from the Lytvyn Bloc. Please could you forward it to (Lytvyn Bloc MP Ihor) Sharov. Unfortunately, I apologize to our colleagues from the Party of Regions and the Communist Party, as we cannot negotiate a new coalition with them due to deep ideological differences.” Yatseniuk said: “The ice has been broken. One of the factions announced its program principles. I would suggest that all the factions publicly announce their program principles on the basis of which they propose to form a coalition. It would be appropriate, transparent and clear, primarily for the public, to show for the sake of what the coalition is being proposed - for the sake of principles or posts.” Another issue, the election of a new speaker was also discussed, as Yatseniuk tendered his resignation on September 17. The Party of Regions said this should be done as soon as possible. In a separate report, Party of Regions MP Oleksandr Yefremov said today that Borys Kolesnykov is not holding talks with the OUPSD faction on the creation of a new coalition. |
