Ukraine parliament approves new Cabinet, Speaker

Ukraine’s parliament approved on April 14 the president’s nomination of Volodymyr Groysman as Ukraine’s new prime minister. The nomination drew 257 votes in support, out of which 206 votes (80%) came from the de facto coalition between the Petro Poroshenko Bloc and the People’s Front. With the same vote, parliament approved the resignation of Arseniy Yatsenyuk as prime minister and canceled the February resolution declaring his Cabinet’s work as unsatisfactory.

“I understand the threats that stand before us,” Groysman said in his remarks before the vote. “In particular, I’d like to underline three threats – corruption, ineffective state administration and populism, which is no smaller a threat to Ukraine than the enemy to the east of our country.”

In a separate vote, 239 MPs voted to approve the new Cabinet of Ministers. Out of that result, 197 votes (82%) came from the de facto coalition (Poroshenko Bloc and People’s Front). Besides those key ministers we reported on yesterday, Stepan Kubiv was appointed first vice prime minister and minister for economic development, Volodymyr Omelian became infrastructure minister and Vadym Chernysh was appointed minister for the temporarily occupied territories and internally displaced persons.

Besides the Cabinet, 284 MPs voted to appoint Andriy Parubiy of the People’s Front party (led by Yatsenyuk) as the new parliamentary speaker. His first deputy will be Iryna Herashchenko of the Poroshenko Bloc, who last served as the president’s ombudsman to resolve the Donbas conflict.

Zenon Zawada: It was revealing that 20 MPs 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.

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 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.