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Ex-PM Tymoshenko’s faction quits Ukraine governing coalition | |
(about 3 hours later) | |
MINSK, Belarus — Ukraine saw more political turmoil Wednesday, as former Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko announced that her faction was withdrawing from the governing coalition, which she criticized as an obstacle to reforms. | |
Tymoshenko’s move came a day after Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk’s cabinet survived a no-confidence vote in parliament even though a majority of lawmakers declared its work unsatisfactory. The vote reflected lawmakers’ fears that it could lead to the collapse of the governing coalition and an early election. | |
Tymoshenko, who leads the smallest of the four factions in the governing coalition, accused its participants of collusion in a bid to protect their seats. | |
“We consider it inadmissible to be part of that pack, which has no chance because it doesn’t want to conduct reforms, protect Ukraine and renew our life,” she said. | |
President Petro Poroshenko and Yatsenyuk lead the largest factions in the coalition, with 217 of parliament’s 450 seats between them. They retain a majority in parliament despite the exit of Tymoshenko’s 19 seats. | |
Fierce spats involving members of Yatsenyuk’s and Poroshenko’s blocs amid Ukraine’s economic woes have strained public patience and eroded the confidence of the West. Some well-respected reformers have resigned in the past week, citing their disenchantment with the government’s cronyism and corruption. | |
Just before the no-confidence vote Tuesday, Poroshenko via his spokesman urged Yatsenyuk to resign, but many members of the president’s faction then refrained from voting for the Cabinet’s dismissal. | |
The fourth faction, Samopomich (Self Help), which has 26 seats, is now key to securing the governing coalition. If it follows Tymoshenko’s example, the coalition will face a daunting task to find other partners to keep a majority and avoid a quick election. | |
Yatsenyuk became prime minister after Ukraine’s former Russia-friendly president was chased from power in February 2014 following massive street protests. Poroshenko was elected several months later with broad support and a seal of approval from Western leaders. | |
Ukraine has remained locked in a bitter tug-of-war with Moscow, which annexed the Crimean Peninsula om 2014 and supports a pro-Russian insurgency in eastern Ukraine, where fighting has killed more than 9,000 people since April 2014 and devastated the nation’s industrial heartland. | |
Last week, International Monetary Fund head Christine Lagarde threatened to halt the delivery of another installment of Ukraine’s $17.5 billion aid package, which the country is counting on to keep the economy afloat. | |
Vadim Karasev, the director of the Kiev-based Institute of Global Strategies, said with his latest maneuver, Poroshenko sought to both secure the flow of Western aid and try to make the prime minister more pliant. | |
Copyright 2016 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. | Copyright 2016 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. |
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