You're reading: Poroshenko backs loyalist Groysman as prime minister

After weeks of backstage negotiations, leaders of four parties – with enough votes to command a majority in parliament – said on March 24 that they are considering Verkhovna Rada speaker Volodymyr Groysman as prime minister.

The President Petro Poroshenko Bloc, the biggest faction in parliament with 135 members, still needs another 91 votes to secure Groysman as the replacement for Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk.

Other factions deciding if they will back him include Yatsenyuk’s People’s Front, Yulia Tymoshenko’s Batkivshchyna Party and Oleh Lyashko’s Radical Party. Together with the president’s group, the four factions have a clear majority of 255 votes.

Poroshenko wants parliament to vote at its next meeting on March 29, a day before he visits Washington, D.C. for the Nuclear Security Summit.

Groysman will present his program to the public on March 25.

His election, however, is not certain.

As speaker, Groysman has pushed for legislation that plays into the hands of corrupt politicians, including bills reducing the anti-corruption prosecutor’s independence, exempting corrupt officials from responsibility for fraudulent property declarations, and allowing party leaders to get rid of elected members – the so-called “party dictatorship” law. Groysman has also violated parliamentary procedures often.

 

Jaresko out

 

Groysman was the only candidate named after a meeting of faction leaders on March 24. The announcement came as a disappointment to many people because it meant that Finance Minister Natalie Jaresko was out of the game.

Reports that Poroshenko offered the post to Jaresko have been swirling for weeks, but it wasn’t until March 22 that Jaresko confirmed the offer and said she is willing.

“I’m ready to form a team,” Jaresko said in the Facebook post, “that right now will start working for Ukraine and its citizens, not for certain business or political groups.” Jaresko is supported by reform-minded lawmakers and Westerners. She hasn’t yet reacted to the announcement of the Groysman candidacy.

 

Blaming each other

 

A technocrat government headed by Jaresko would mean that party representatives would not automatically get posts, as opposed to a traditional political government, where parties divide up seats.

The Groysman candidacy leaves no doubt that the coalition wants a political government.

According to Poroshenko Bloc leader Yuriy Lutsenko, his faction and Yatsenyuk’s People’s Front — with 81 votes – were ready to support Jaresko, but couldn’t get a majority in parliament.

Lutsenko blamed Samopomich, a party of 26 members that left the ruling coalition. Samopomich said they won’t vote for anything until Prosecutor General Viktor Shokin is replaced and new, transparent election legislation is adopted. He also blamed People’s Front as opposed to a technocratic government. At the same time, People’s Front representative Viktoria Siumar said that Lutsenko presented Groysman as the only realistic option.

People’s Front will decide at their faction meeting on March 28 whether they will vote for Groysman. If they do, they are promised the Verkhovna Rada speaker of their choice.

Several Poroshenko lawmakers said there was no discussion of Groysman at the faction meetings. “The members of the faction learned about (it) from Lutsenko’s Facebook page,” lawmaker Serhiy Leshchenko said.

Critics doubt that any faction wanted a technocratic government.

“You shouldn’t blame just one of the factions because it seems that none of them wanted it,” political analyst Vitaly Bala of the Situations Modeling Agency told the Kyiv Post.

Timothy Ash, an analyst with Nomura International, said that Groysman clearly was “Poroshenko’s preferred option” since “a technocratic government could be difficult to manage from the presidency and it might go to places which could be uncomfortable – e.g. rule of law.”

 

Conditions impossible

 

With Samopomich out, there are four factions that can form a ruling coalition to nominate and approve Groysman: the Poroshenko Bloc, People’s Front, Oleg Lyashko’s Radical Party and Yulia Tymoshenko’s Batkivshchyna.

The Radical Party and Batkivshchyna voiced conditions.

Lyashko wants parliament to drop the issue of special status for war-torn Donbas, but that is a requirement of the Minsk peace deal.

Other demands including banning the sale of state-owned agricultural lands and cancel the planned raise of the retirement age – which contradicts a demand of International Monetary Fund, the main source of financial aid for Ukraine.

Batkivshchyna set five conditions. While the faction also wants to ban the sale of agricultural lands, it also demands “economically motivated” utility rates, indexation of salaries and pensions, support for small business and breaking corrupt ties between oligarchs and government.

 

Executive Director of The Bleyzer Foundation Oleg Ustenko said “these things are impossible to achieve.”