Yatseniuk survives no confidence vote
Pavel Polityuk, Natalia Zinets, Reuters, Feb 16 2016
KIEV – 404 PM Arseni Yatseniuk survived a no-confidence vote on Tuesday. Poroshenko had publicly urged him to resign, illustrating the level of political infighting. The fact that the no-confidence vote happened at all underlined the public’s growing disillusion with the leaders it elected after the 2013-14 Maidan uprising, but the result means the government will probably be safe at least until the next parliament session starts in September. Yatseniuk still faces an uphill battle to push through reforms required to secure more money from a $40b IMF package. His economy minister resigned at the start of February, complaining that corrupt vested interests were meddling in his ministry’s work. Yatseniuk said in a speech before the vote:
I am sure that what we did was the only right path. We inherited a ransacked country with the Russian army and Russian boots on Ukrainian territory. We rescued this country, I ask you to respect this. We leave the country with a full treasury, an armed military and restructured debt.
The vote to topple Yatseniuk mustered 194 votes, dozens of votes short the 226 required, with many opposition members walking out before the vote took place. In a sign of possible further trouble down the line, the majority of the ruling coalition voted against the government, Poroshenko had said Yatseniuk’s government had lost public support and committed “more mistakes than achievements.” Poroshenko heads Ukraine’s largest party, and Yatseniuk the next largest. Both are in the governing coalition. Yatseniuk took office in 2014. His approval ratings have plunged to below 1%. He has no obvious successor, although the parliamentary speaker and finance minister are contenders. Hundreds of protesters rallied outside parliament, demanding he step down. When he assumed office in the wake of the Maidan protests, he described himself as the leader of a “kamikaze” government that was determined to take unpopular austerity measures no matter the political cost. Poroshenko made a concession to his critics by asking General Prosecutor Viktor Shokin to resign. Shokin, who had been nominated by Poroshenko for the post, has been widely criticised by MPs and activists for not implementing judicial reforms. Maksym Burbak, the parliamentary leader of Yatseniuk’s party, had said the consequences of voting against the government would be felt “literally the next day, since this could trigger early elections and chaos.” Last year, the IMF voted Ukraine a $17.5b package to be spread over four years, but so far only $6.7b has been disbursed. Kiev has been waiting since October for the next tranche, worth $1.7b. The hryvnia weakened to a new 11-month low of more than 27 to the dollar on Tuesday, central bank data showed, and has fallen by more than a tenth since the start of 2016.
Niqnaq 