Ukrainian Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk on Sunday announced his resignation, calling for the formation of a new government as Kiev endures its worst political crisis since the Euromaidan revolution of 2014.
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“Having done everything to ensure stability and make a smooth transition of power possible, I chose to step down from the post of prime minister of Ukraine”, the 41-year said in a weekly television address. Since late February, the media have been full of details of bargaining between Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko, the leaders of different political factions, and the prime minister himself on Yatsenyuk’s conditions for quitting.
He said the crisis that forced him to go had been “created artificially”, adding that the desire to get rid of him had “blinded politicians and paralysed their political will for real change”.
President Petro Poroshenko’s party has proposed replacing Yatsenyuk with parliament speaker Volodymyr Groysman – a coalition builder who has gained stature by keeping the notoriously-rowdy chamber in relative peace since his appointment in November 2014.
Yatsenyuk cautioned that the “political crisis in the country is artificial”.
Instead, Ukraine lost the Crimean Peninsula to Russian Federation and found itself at war with Russia-backed separatists in the east. The new, pro-Western government failed to show that it was serious about taking on corruption or enacting the promised reforms. The embattled prime minister has seen his approval ratings plunge.
The comments refer to blame-games over stalled anti-corruption reforms between his party, the People’s Front, and its coalition partner, the Poroshenko bloc, which had prompted calls for Yatsenyuk to go.
That goal was dealt a potentially deadly blow last week by the resounding No vote in a Dutch referendum on whether to approve an European Union association agreement with Ukraine.
Yatsenyuk, who narrowly survived a vote of no-confidence in parliament earlier this year, said his resignation will be presented to the legislature on Tuesday.
It is hoped a new stable coalition will push through reforms and reassure Ukraine’s chief backers, not least the International Monetary Fund.
With Yatsenyuk’s announcing that he would formally submit his resignation to Parliament on Tuesday, the stage is set for more political brokering.
The same leaks say that the new candidate for the post of prime minister will be Volodymyr Groysman, the speaker of the Rada.
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A deputy from the Ukrainian president’s political party attacks Ukrainian Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk (R) during a parliament session, Kiev, Ukraine, December 11, 2015. The parties of both Yatsenyuk and Poroshenko are facing all-time lows in public support, and could well be swept away in favor of radical new forces by an angry and disillusioned electorate.
