Party of Regions sends its MPs on recess

Leaders of the majority-forming Party of Regions parliamentary faction decided on Feb. 21 to release their MPs on recess until March 5. Meanwhile, opposition MPs, who started a parliamentary blockade on Feb. 5, are continuing to block the presidium, demanding that majority MPs use sensors to cast their votes instead of using cards to cast votes on behalf of absent MPs. They suspected the Party of Regions would launch an ambush to unblock the presidium the night of Feb. 21 but that didn’t occur.

Precisely on March 5, President Viktor Yanukovych gains the right to dismiss parliament and call pre-term elections. Although Party of Regions have threatened this, Parliamentary Faction Chair Oleksandr Yefremov said on Feb. 21 that the president “isn’t even thinking about it,” reported the Kommersant-Ukrayina newspaper.

Zenon Zawada: Various theories have surfaced as to why the Party of Regions hasn’t made a physical attempt to unblock the presidium, as we had expected. Communist Spiridon Klinkarov suspected that the blockade has given the Party of Regions the pretext they had coveted to avoid approving legislation on the Ukraine-EU Association Agreement, which he said its leadership truly doesn’t favor. It’s certainly possible because the Party of Regions could have easily resolved this conflict – either by agreeing to vote using sensors (the opposition’s main grievance) or physically taking the presidium.

We don’t rule out that a surprise attempt will be made during the recess to retake control when the opposition is least expecting it. Meanwhile, pre-term elections would be playing with fire on the president’s part.