Ukraine’s parliament voted on April 14 to appoint Volodymyr Groysman as the country’s new prime minister, with 257 lawmakers – 31 votes more than needed – supporting his candidacy.
But the new coalition that was formed to back Groysman and his new government proved unstable even on its first day, immediately raising questions about how long it can last.
Twenty-one lawmakers from factions in the new coalition didn’t support Groysman for prime minister. Ten of them were absent, but 11 lawmakers deliberately didn’t vote.
Groysman’s appointment was passed, though, thanks to the support of 11 independent lawmakers, all 23 lawmakers of the Vidrodzhennya (Renaissance) faction, a group that is associated with oligarch Igor Kolomoisky, and 16 lawmakers from the Volya Narodu (People’s Will) faction.
But just hours later, it took the parliament three attempts to scrape together enough votes to pass the program of Groysman’s Cabinet.
End of crisis?
Groysman, who served as the speaker of parliament since November 2014, replaced Arseniy Yatsenyuk, who spent two years as prime minister.
The vote could end a long-running political crisis that started in the middle of February, when the parliament tried and failed to unseat Yatsenyuk, prompting a breakdown of the ruling coalition.
Since then, the largest faction in parliament — the pro-presidential Bloc of Petro Poroshenko — has been trying to form a new majority. Yatsenyuk agreed to resign if the bloc could garner enough votes to appoint his successor. He announced his resignation in a TV address on April 10.
After former coalition member factions Samopomich, the Radical Party and Yulia Tymoshenko’s Batkivshchyna refused to join a new majority coalition, the Poroshenko Bloc attracted independent lawmakers to join its ranks, and formed a shaky coalition with the second-biggest faction, Yatsenyuk’s People’s Front. Together, the two factions have 227 votes – just one vote more than the required minimum for a ruling majority.
Meanwhile, the parties in opposition, including members of the previous coalition, criticized the manner in which Groysman was appointed.
The lawmakers held a single vote to dismiss Yatsenyuk, cancel an earlier decision that declared the work of his government unsatisfactory,and appoint Groysman.
But this all-in-one vote was carried out in violation of the Verkhovna Rada’s rules of procedure, some lawmakers argued.
“Judging from the way this Cabinet was appointed and the coalition was formed, this new government has little respect for the law,” said Yuriy Chyzhmar, a lawmaker from Oleh Liashko’s Radical Party.
Serving oligarch interests?
Zenon Zawada, an analyst for Concorde Capital, said the new alignment is not in the public’s interest.
“It was revealing that 20 members of parliament from the de facto coalition didn’t support Groysman’s nomination. Among those opposed included reformers such as Svitlana Zalishchuk, who said afterwards that the entire process of forming the new Cabinet was corrupt. As a result, votes were drawn from the two oligarch-oriented MP groups – Reniassance and Will of the People – which the pro-Western opposition jumped upon to demonstrate that the pro-Western establishment has sold out the public to the oligarchs,” Zawada wrote. “Indeed we believe this Cabinet will serve oligarch interests and will have problems meeting the expectations of the public, and the West, for reforms. This view is buttressed by the high-level appointment of (Stepan) Kubiv, a controversial figure. He was widely accused of conducting improper refinancing of banks and profiting off the fall, being arrested but never charged. He then became the president’s representative to parliament. To make such a controversial appointment indicates the president is more concerned about his own interests, and those of oligarchs, rather than the public interest.”
Power for Poroshenko
Groysman, 38, becomes the youngest prime minister in Ukraine’s history. He is a former mayor of Vinnytsia and a loyalist of Poroshenko.
His appointment marks a shift of power in Ukraine. After two years during which two parties – those of Poroshenko and Yatsenyuk — had relatively equal representation and influence in parliament and government, Poroshenko has strengthened his position through the appointment of a loyal prime minister.
Addressing the parliament before the vote, Poroshenko said that he “was forced to take the role of a political moderator” to enforce the formation of the new cabinet.
He also said that “there wasn’t a big line of volunteers to take the prime minister’s job.”
Among the candidates who were said or rumored to have been considered for the job over the past three months were ex-Finance Minister Natalie Jaresko, Deputy Head of the Presidential Administration Dmytro Shymkiv, and Odessa Governor Mikheil Saakashvili.
In exchange for supporting Groysman’s candidacy, Yatsenyuk’s People’s Front was given the chance to appoint one of its own as speaker of parliament: Andriy Parubiy, an active participant in the EuroMaidan Revolution that drove President Viktor Yanukovych from power.
Parubiy previously served as deputy speaker. Poroshenko Bloc lawmaker Iryna Gerashchenko was voted in as the new deputy speaker.
The People’s Front was also given several ministerial positions in the new government.
Meet the Cabinet
Groysman’s Cabinet was appointed with 239 votes in favor.
Several ministers from Yatsenyuk’s Cabinet kept their jobs, including Deputy Prime Minister Hennadiy Zubko, Interior Minister Arsen Avakov, Justice Minister Pavlo Petrenko, Foreign Minister Pavlo Klimkin, Defense Minister Stepan Poltorak, and Minister of Sports and Youth Ihor Zhdanov. Ex-Social Policy Minister Pavlo Petrenko was promoted to deputy prime minister.
The position of health minister remains vacant, as the coalition is yet to agree on a candidate.
Former head of National Bank of Ukraine Stepan Kubiv was appointed economy minister. Deputy Head of President’s Administration Oleksandr Danyuliuk, who previously worked in the Yanukovych administration, is the new minister of finance. He replaced Ukrainian-American Jaresko.
As Groysman made his address as the new prime minister, his promises of hard work were barely audible above opposition chants of “Shame!” Opposition lawmakers were still outraged by the all-in-one vote that gave Groysman the premiership.
“I’m going to show you what it means to govern a country,” Groysman said at the end of his speech, looking irritated by the shouting.
Yatsenyuk’s exit
Yatsenyuk showed up at parliament before the vote on April 14 to officially ask the lawmakers to dismiss him. After a very short address, about two minutes long, he quickly left the hall, to applause from the members of his faction.
Since Yatsenyuk had to give up his parliament seat when he was appointed prime minister in 2014, the resignation leaves him with no official position. He remains the head of the People’s Front party.
Addressing the parliament in support of Groysman’s candidacy, Poroshenko warned lawmakers against continuing to lambast the Yatsenyuk cabinet.
“The resignation of the Cabinet is no reason to throw rocks at their backs,” he said. “Yes, it lost the support of parliament. But no Ukrainian government has ever worked in such harsh conditions as this one did.”
Nevertheless, speakers from oppositional parties, including the Opposition Bloc and Tymoshenko’s Batkivshchyna had harsh words for Yatsenyuk, the new Cabinet and the coalition when they spoke from the parliament rostrum.
However, Yatsenyuk was defended by one of his regular critics, the head of the Poroshenko Bloc faction, Yuriy Lutsenko, who praised the former premier for “creating a real Ukrainian army” and ensuring Ukraine’s energy independence from Russia by purchasing reverse-flow gas from Europe, instead of buying gas directly from Russia.
“Yatsenyuk earned his applause today, just as he earned criticism before,” Lutsenko said.
Kyiv Post staff writer Alyona Zhuk contributed to this story.
