JOHN MARONE, KYIV
UKRAINE’S PRESIDENT FIGHTS FIRE WITH FIRE
Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko is finally starting to employ the tactics of his opponents in the government and the majority it controls in parliament. Long accused of indecision and by observers and even his supporters, Yushchenko has now turned to brinkmanship and blitzkrieg appointments in a last-ditch effort to regain control of executive power.
On the evening of April 25, the president unexpectedly announced to Ukrainians on national television that he was calling snap parliamentary elections for June 24.
Just over three weeks earlier, Yushchenko had delivered virtually the same message, also during an evening television address, setting a polling date on May 27.
The first announcement, based on a presidential decree, clearly caught the government of Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovych and the Verkhovna Rada by surprise.
Members of Yanukovych’s Regions party, together with its leftist allies in the parliament, organized street demonstrations in the capital, challenging the constitutionality of the president’s decree.
During the country’s Orange Revolution two and a half years ago, Yushchenko had defeated Yanukovych’s fraud-marred bid for the presidency using similar, although significantly larger protests.
With the help of American PR gurus, Yanukovych has employed Yushchenko’s own tactics against him, including a barrage of media support in the West.
Yushchenko has also apparently learned a few tricks from his political nemesis, the kind that are more applicable to Ukraine’s down-and-dirty arena of power.
Members of the president’s Our Ukraine faction as well as the bloc of firebrand Orange politician Yulia Tymoshenko, both in opposition to the government, have said they would insist on snap elections whether the Constitutional Court supports Yushchenko’s dismissal of the parliament or not.
For his part, Yushchenko has been reshuffling officials to bolster his administrative support, including the head of a Kyiv court known for its rulings related to top-level political issues.
Immediately following his second decree scheduling early elections for June 24, the president replaced the country’s prosecutor-general, Oleksandr Medvedko, a figure firmly in the camp of Prime Minister Yanukovych.
Yanukovych has been muscling power away from Yushchenko ever since he regained control of the Cabinet last summer, putting a damper on the president’s pro-Western reforms along the way.
Bolstered by a majority coalition in the parliament, which includes a potent mixture of eastern industrialist, leftists and some of Yushchenko’s former allies during the pro-Democratic Orange Revolution, the government has been relentless in reducing the once-powerful Ukrainian presidency to a more ceremonial role.
The Donetsk-based Regions faction has led the charge, filling every post it could with party loyalists, with the Socialists, and to a lesser extent the Communists, also getting important positions.
As he struggled to resist the grab for his presidential prerogatives, Yushchenko reminded Ukrainians of the importance of compromise and the rule of law.
It was Yushchenko himself who had endorsed Yanukovych, his bitter rival for the presidency in the 2004 elections, to head the government, after failing to forge a coalition with Orange parties.
It was also Yushchenko who had agreed to a confusing array of constitutional amendments, which gave his opponents the legal leeway to challenge his authority.
The president’s patience was finally exhausted when the government-backed majority started recruiting members of the opposition, which includes the president’s Our Ukraine party.
If the majority had succeeded, Yushchenko would have lost one of his last important levers of power – the presidential veto.
In dismissing the parliament, the president has gone on the offensive, fighting fire with fire, in a political battle with no rules or respected referees.
The parliament demonstrated a selfish understanding of the country’s confusing constitution when it fired pro-Western Foreign Minister Borys Tarasyuk.
Even under the controversial constitutional amendments that Yushchenko had foisted on him during his rise to power, the president is responsible for foreign policy.
The formation of a constitutional majority after a parliamentary majority has been formed is also highly questionable, if not down right illegal.
Yushchenko highlighted these irregularities in his first televised address.
During the televised announcement of his second decree, the president merely reinforced the need for voters to decide who is right.
“This is the only way to implant in Ukraine’s politicians a sense of responsibility to each one of you, as you represent authority, real power,” he told his compatriots.
Indeed, despite calls by foreign powers and the parliamentary majority for a legal solution, the country’s courts are as divided as the executive and judicial branches of power.
But the president has not gone so far as to ignore the rule of law.
In appointing Svyatoslav Piskun to head the country’s top law-enforcement body, Yushchenko was heeding a recent court ruling in favor of Piskun, who had contested his dismissal under Yushchenko over a year ago.
Nor is it easy to accuse the president of trying to stack the deck with loyalists, as Piskun was elected to parliament on the Regions ticket after being sacked by Yushchenko in 2005.
However, Piskun also has serious image problems, having been accused by the opposition of derailing high-profile criminal cases involving top politicians during his first two stints in the job.
Observers, nevertheless, believe the new top prosecutor will now be first and foremost loyal to the president, who already enjoys the support of the country’s intelligence service and military.
But beefing up his support among such structures is not enough for Yushchenko to win the day. The president doesn’t enjoy nearly the amount of popularity at home or abroad that he did during the Orange Revolution.
Instead, he is biding for time to negotiate a compromise with his arch foe, Yanukovych.
The chances of fresh elections being held in June may not be any better than in May, especially with the government resisting them every step of the way.
But the president has now shown his political enemies, the Ukrainian people and the world that he won’t be bullied any longer, by fighting fire with fire.
John Marone, Kyiv Post Senior Journalist, based in Ukraine.
April 27, 2007
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