Poroshenko Bloc claims enough votes to approve Hroisman as PM

The prime minister candidacy of Volodymyr Hroisman, the current parliamentary speaker and presidential confidante, has the support of the Petro Poroshenko Bloc and the Fatherland party led by former PM Yulia Tymoshenko, Poroshenko Bloc Head Yuriy Lutsenko told the Inter television network on March 27. That’s 154 votes, which is what was required by PM Arseniy Yatsenyuk in order to lend his People’s Front faction’s 81 votes to elect Hroisman by a majority, he said. Yatsenyuk also required a new program, which was fulfilled, he said.

Lutsenko proposed a schedule by which Yatsenyuk would submit his resignation by Tuesday, when the new coalition agreement can be signed and Hroisman can be nominated. On Wednesday, Hroisman can consult with the faction heads and on Thursday, the new Cabinet can be elected. “Now the whole country can see who is hanging onto his seat,” Lutsenko said. “If the People’s Front finds more reasons for why the vote can’t occur this week, I will personally exit the coalition and I think not less than a hundred of my colleagues will do the same.”

In his comments that day, Yatsenyuk said he’d support new formats for the coalition and Cabinet. At the same time, he called for decisions on the future coalition to be made by its leaders, implying that the Presidential Administration was interfering. His solution out of the political crisis consisted of approving several acts on the principles of governance to quicken reforms and combat corruption. “The country is expecting reforms of the judiciary, prosecution and the Constitution,” he said. “I call upon the president and parliament to become the leaders of such actions.”

Zenon Zawada: We believe it’s possible that Tymoshenko and her party will support Hroisman as PM. But we believe it’s highly unlikely she will allow her faction to help form the new coalition, which is a separate matter. Helping to preserve this status quo would discredit her and cost her votes that will migrate to the other pro-Western opposition force, Self-Reliance. So Lutsenko’s new proposed schedule is unrealistic, as it was last week, and it’s intended to shift the blame onto Yatsenyuk for the lack of consensus.

Oleh Liashko officially withdrawing his faction’s signatures from the coalition last week made forming the next government even more complicated than before. It’s possible that Hroisman will be voted on by the Rada this week but we don’t expect a new coalition to emerge this week, or the next few weeks for that matter. If the situation in Donbas could eventually turn into a frozen conflict, we could just as well have a frozen coalition in Kyiv (but with a reshuffled new Cabinet and speaker).