Yushchenko reasserts his role in national politics in Ukraine (12/17/06)

Yushchenko reasserts his role in national politics in Ukraine

by Zenon Zawada
Kyiv Press Bureau

KYIV - In recent weeks, Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko has reasserted his role in national politics, both in counter-balancing the coalition government and in setting the agenda for his own political party.

After committing himself to battling with Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovych over Borys Tarasyuk's status as minister of foreign affairs, Mr. Yushchenko took up another fight when he decided on December 12 to veto the 2007 budget passed by the coalition government.

"Let's respect the law, let's act appropriately towards the institution of presidency, and let's act appropriately towards the status of the government and its members," the president told reporters on December 14, speaking of his relations with Mr. Yanukovych.

Mr. Yushchenko also put his foot down in dealing with the stubborn leadership of the Our Ukraine People's Union (OUPU), attending a recent party session to personally ensure that Presidential Secretariat Chair Viktor Baloha replaced Roman Bezsmertnyi as Political Council chair, at least temporarily.

Mr. Yushchenko is renowned for his hands-off, distanced approach to Ukrainian politics, which his critics describe as aloof and detached.

The Ukrainian president much prefers to tackle Ukraine's grand political and philosophical questions, such as its ultimate foreign policy course, and historical-cultural issues, such as Holodomor remembrance and Church unification, political observers said.

He has an antipathy for the nuts and bolts of forming policies and laws, pulling strings and maneuvering within government, as well as dealing with power struggles and personality conflicts within government and the OUPU, they said.

But, after several months on the sidelines, President Yushchenko recently found himself in positions forcing him to act.

The coalition government led by Prime Minister Yanukovych and the Party of the Regions had been leading an aggressive campaign of usurping control of the Ukrainian government.

After accepting the resignations of three Our Ukraine ministers of the Cabinet, the coalition government voted on December 1 to sack Foreign Affairs Minister Tarasyuk and Minister of Internal Affairs Yurii Lutsenko, an Orange Revolution hero.

Mr. Tarasyuk's sacking sounded a particular alarm with Mr. Yushchenko since the Foreign Affairs and Defense ministries remain the president's domain, even after the presidential limitations of the January 1 constitutional reforms.

At a December 14 press conference in Kyiv with foreign journalists, Mr. Yushchenko said he won't back down and allow anyone other than Mr. Tarasyuk to serve as foreign minister, having turned down attempts by Mr. Yanukovych to replace him.

"There's a court decision about the Verkhovna Rada's illegal decision," the president said. "The conditions are reset on a legal position. Period."

Beyond defending the Ukrainian presidency and its constitutionally endowed powers, Mr. Yushchenko's resolve over Mr. Tarasyuk revealed that keeping Ukraine on its Euro-Atlantic integration course is a critical priority for him.

He reaffirmed that commitment during a recent visit to Estonia, stating that he opposed a national referendum to decide whether Ukraine should pursue membership in the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO). In his view, NATO membership is a foreign policy goal well entrenched in Ukrainian foreign policy.

"Our nation's goal is full membership in these organizations [NATO and the European Union], and no Ukrainian political force has as its goal revising this course," Mr. Yushchenko told reporters in Tallinn on December 12.

Mr. Yushchenko's statement has been the strongest stance yet against the NATO referendum.

As foreign affairs minister, Mr. Tarasyuk never openly opposed the referendum, stating only that it should be no sooner than 2008.

U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine William Taylor has expressed support for a NATO referendum in Ukraine.

Mr. Yushchenko's strong statement came days after the parliamentary coalition government called on Central Election Commission Chair Yaroslav Davydovych to report to the Verkhovna Rada, suspecting he may be intentionally stalling the NATO referendum on the president's behalf.

After the Party of the Regions demonstrated its preference for a quick NATO referendum, largely because Ukrainian voters are likely to reject the military alliance, Mr. Yushchenko saw the need to establish a clear and firm opposition.

Only 17 to 20 percent of Ukrainians support NATO membership, according to recent polls.

The Ukrainian president also asserted his presidential power to veto the 2007 budget passed by the coalition government, arguing that it didn't offer adequate pension and minimum wage increases and requesting the Cabinet to find $2 billion in financing for these areas.

Specifically, he pointed out that the budget allocated a mere $5 a month increase in pensions, raising the monthly minimum to $81.

Meanwhile, the budget's projected minimum wage of $90 a month by December 2007 meant the real minimum wage (factoring inflation and increased taxes) would actually decrease in 2007, after rising 40 percent in 2005 and 20 percent in 2006.

"For the first time in recent years in Ukraine, a real decline could occur in the minimum wage, which is the basis for calculating the working wage of 10 million working citizens, particularly government employees such as doctors, teachers and workers in the cultural sphere."

The president's third main complaint was about a proposed change in oil export taxation that could cost millions of dollars in needed revenue.

The veto drew the ire of Prime Minister Yanukovych, who told a meeting of the Cabinet of Ministers that the president's request to find additional funds wasn't realistic.

At a December 13 Cabinet meeting, Mr. Yanukovych instructed First Vice Prime Minister Mykola Azarov to search for compromises, then added, "but I practically don't see any."

"They hope that we have enough patience while they tell people fairy tales," Mr. Yanukovych said of his opponents. "I warned that I will work and speak little. That will be our style. And there shouldn't be any populism here."

He warned that timely social payments may not arrive in January because of budget disagreements.

"Who needs this?" Mr. Yanukovych asked rhetorically. "Those who don't like the fact that they're not in power? And what did they do when they were in power?"

Hours later, the Cabinet of Ministers issued an acrid statement that didn't attack the president, but accused budget critics of leading a disinformation campaign of brazen lies that incited Mr. Yushchenko to issue his veto.

In accordance with the 2007 budget passed by the Verkhovna Rada, the minimum wage increases 12.5 percent in 2007, from $80 a month to $90 a month, compared to a 14 percent increase in 2006, from $70 a month to $80 a month.

Funding for health care increases $860 million in 2007, funding for education increases $1.12 billion, and funding for science increases $109 million, the statement said.

"The government is counting on Ukraine's president to actively support the course to increase our citizens' wealth and not to fall under the influence of adventurist politicians, who are calling on him to break off the budget process for the first time in Ukraine's history and create chaos in our country," the statement said.

"Adventurist politicians" was a likely reference to Parliamentary Opposition Leader Yulia Tymoshenko. The reference "create chaos" was a likely allusion to the unlikely possibility the president may dismiss Parliament.

Mr. Yanukovych said he plans to meet with Mr. Yushchenko this week and expects the president will sign off on the 2007 budget.

Mr. Yushchenko had better results in reasserting himself with the OUPU, the political party over which he serves as honorary chair.

Though it's widely acknowledged that the OUPU would cease to exist without Mr. Yushchenko as its figurehead, its leaders tightened their grip on the party's reins in recent months, even ignoring the president's counsel.

Most recently, Acting Political Council Chair Bezsmertnyi and his influential circle of businessmen ignored Mr. Yushchenko's advice to change party leadership and fought off attempts by OUPU delegates to do so during a November congress. Afterwards, a popular politician, Mykola Katerynchuk, quit the party in disgust.

Clearly disappointed with Mr. Bezsmertnyi, Mr. Yushchenko decided to attend a closed-door December 7 session of the OUPU Political Council to select or confirm chairs to lead the party.

Mr. Yushchenko nominated a fresh face, Presidential Secretariat Chair Baloha, to replace Mr. Bezsmertnyi as Political Council chair until the party's next congress in March 2007.

After three failed votes, the president's nomination of the 43-year-old former mayor of Mukachiv was finally approved.

Delegates voted to elect Mr. Bezsmertnyi to chair the party's executive committee, taking Mr. Katerynchuk's former position.

The OUPU is undergoing an organizational period, Mr. Yushchenko told the delegates. The March congress will decide the new leadership and will mark a new stage in the party's activity, he said.

"New players can bring new energy," the president said.

The president's sudden burst of leadership took the party's obstinate old guard by surprise, and millionaire businessman Oleksander Tretiakov was reportedly so frustrated that he quit the Political Council, according to Ukrayina Moloda, a daily national newspaper.

However, political experts said the presence of both Mr. Baloha and Mr. Bezsmertnyi in the OUPU leadership signaled that the president had reached some form of compromise with the Bezsmertnyi circle, which includes Mr. Tretiakov.

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