You're reading: Communist Party’s Symonenko taunts, national Svoboda Party swings back (VIDEO)

 Communist Party leader Petro Symonenko, the 62-year-old who commands a 33-seat minority in parliament, didn't get to finish his speech in parliament on April 8. What he said to fellow members of parliament in the Verkhovna Rada so outraged two Svoboda Party members that, barely a minute into Symonenko's remarks, they charged the podium and pushed him aside. This sparked another fist fight in the legislative body internationally known for rough play. Interim President Oleksandr Turchynov, who also doubles as parliament speaker, called a 10-minute break for tempers to cool down.

Here is a EuroMaidanPR translation of Symonenko’s remarks, in which he blames supporters of the EuroMaidan Revolution that ousted President Viktor Yanukovych for igniting the current pro-Russia separatist rallies in southeastern Ukraine:



Head of the Ukrainian Communist party Petro Symonenko (L) and his Russian counterpart Gennadiy Zuganov take part in a rally in downtown Donetsk on August 19, 2011. An international communists forum took place in Donetsk today to mark the 20th anniversary of the break-up of the USSR. AFP PHOTO/ALEXANDER KHUDOTEPLY

“I always
claimed that our nationalists lead the pro-American and pro-Western politics.
But I was mistaken. According to who and when began taking over the government
buildings. Do you remember this, dear nationalists? Police offices, armory and
weapons. Thousands of guns are in the hands of those who organized gangs and
roam all over Ukraine. Didn’t you give the example? It turns out that we
implemented not an American scenario, but Russian scenario aimed to destroy Ukraine’s
independence, to break it, to rob it! You led by your example. And the citizens
use your example correctly. You always claimed that you were threatened by the
armed forces, but today you sent armed forces against the peaceful protesters.
Today, you do everything to threaten people, you arrest them, you fight against
those who think differently. I believe…”

Communist Party leader Petro Symonenko’s taunting speech against Ukrainian nationalists in parliament on April 8 so outraged Svoboda Party members that two of them charged the rostrum and pushed him away, sparking the latest in a long line of fisticuffs in the 450-seat Verkhovna Rada.