Ukraine’s parliament returned for its autumn session on Sept. 4 with plenty of tasks on the agenda: passing a new law on elections and appointing new staff for the Central Election Commission and preparing a 2019 state budget.
As the Ukrainian presidential elections approach in March, followed by parliamentary elections in October, Verkhovna Rada speaker Andriy Parubiy on Sept. 4 warned lawmakers that heating “political emotions” shouldn’t prevent parliament from working smoothly.
“There’s lots of work ahead of us. During difficult times, during all election times, parliament was the center of stability. Here, we always had the required number of lawmakers to solve all the issues. If the Verkhovna Rada works – everything will be fine in the country,” Parubiy said.
Some 379 lawmakers registered for work on the morning of the opening session but took time to get going. They couldn’t agree on the daily agenda but after the speaker urged them to return to their seats and vote the lawmakers backed amendments to the law on transboundary cooperation and on the management of state-owned enterprises.
Two-time Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko – and now a candidate for the 2019 presidential elections – stole the show of the first session urging her colleagues to sign a memorandum on the unchanging European and Euro-Atlantic paths, counteracting Russian aggression and restoring the territorial integrity of Ukraine. “We have to become the only national team together,” Tymoshenko said while addressing the lawmakers in Rada.
Referring to the disastrous four-year rule from 2010 to 2014 of President Viktor Yanukovych, which ended in the EuroMaidan Revolution, she said: “We remember 2010, when anti-Ukrainian forces got to the power through the falsifications and deception and changed the course of the country. It ended with the war, loss of territory, the Revolution of Dignity and the death of people.” Tymoshenko came within 3.5 percentage points of defeating Yanukovych in 2010.
Tymoshenko currently leads the polls with around 12.5 percent support, according to several pollsters. Only a few percentage points separate her from her nearest rivals – Anatoliy Grytsenko who leads the Civil Position party and Yuriy Boiko of the Opposition Bloc. In her election campaign, Tymoshenko presents herself as an innovator appealing to young Ukrainians: she promises for Ukraine to introduce blockchain technology and support small and medium-sized enterprises.
At the same time, President Petro Poroshenko (who, according to various pollsters, can count on 5 percent of people’s support) appeals to conservative, patriotic voters. In his campaign, Poroshenko promises to strengthen Ukraine’s army and keeps pushing for international recognition for the independence of Ukraine’s Orthodox Church from the jurisdiction of the Moscow Patriarchate.
Ahead of the first day in Rada, Poroshenko met with the leaders of parliamentary factions and groups, discussing Ukraine’s course towards obtaining full membership in the European Union and NATO. It requires amendments to the Constitution which were presented in the bill that has been published on the website of the parliament on Sept. 4.
“The proposed legislative initiative is aimed at making necessary changes to the Constitution of Ukraine to implement Ukraine’s purposeful pragmatic course toward obtaining full membership in the European Union and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization as strategic foreign policy priorities of the state,” the explanatory note reads. Political experts believe that such a decision can become the first brick in the wall of Poroshenko’s new election campaign.
Another issue voiced by Poroshenko was to remove the article in the Constitution allowing foreign military bases to be placed on Ukrainian soil. All the amendments to the Constitution need to gain at least 300 votes in parliament to be passed.
Poroshenko also wants to terminate the Treaty on Friendship, Cooperation and Partnership signed between Ukraine and Russia back in 1997.
