The Verkhovna Rada refused to support the draft Constitution submitted by the President

Yesterday the Verkhovna Rada did not vote for the project of amendments to the Constitution drafted by the Presidential Administration. The Batkivshchyna and Svoboda factions refused to support the document and intend to propose their alternatives. Instead of voting in the first reading the lawmakers only agreed to inclusion of the presidential initiatives to the agenda. But this does not give the document any prospects of being passed by the parliament in the nearest days.

Tymoshenko is back in the game

President Petro Poroshenko came to the parliament to present the bill to the MPs in person. Fortunately for him the events in the parliament saw progress. For example, the parliament met the president halfway dismissing Minister of Defense Major-General Mykhailo Koval and appointing Colonel-General Valeriy Heletei the head of the State Security Service. The newly appointed minister took the oath in the parliament and promised to lead the Ukrainian army to victory that will be celebrated with a “parade in Ukrainian Sevastopol”.

Lieutenant-General Viktor Muzhenko was appointed the new Chief of the General Staff and Yuriy Kosyuk was appointed First deputy Head of the Presidential Administration, who will be in charge of procurement of law enforcement ministries and agencies.
Presenting the bill on amendments to the Constitution Poroshenko said the document was verified according to the European experience. “Amendments to the Constitution proposed today for your examination are much bigger than just the state structure, the form of government or the balance between the branches of government. This is the answer to the question whether Ukraine should be unified, whole and indivisible. This is the answer to the problem of war and peace, which is acute for the first time in the history of independent Ukraine. It is also the most important part of my peace plan,” said Poroshenko from the parliamentary rostrum.

However, the bill did not garner enough votes in the session hall for its adoption. Even before the beginning of the plenary session it became known that the Batkivshchyyna faction decided not to support the presidential initiatives. “After long discussions we decided not to vote for the document due to the fact that it contains elements of usurpation of power,” said MP Andriy Pavlovskiy (Batkivshchyna) in a conversation with Capital.

MP Oleksandr Bryhinets (Batkivshchyna) told the publication that the question of support for Poroshenko’s initiatives was discussed at a special faction meeting in the morning, which was attended by the party’s leader Yulia Tymoshenko and Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk.

“The discussion was lively but calm. In general, at the meeting speakers supported the need for introduction of amendments to the Constitution, in particular, regarding the decentralization of power, but expressed complaints about Poroshenko’s draft,” said Bryhinets. He added that Tymoshenko said the amendments proposed by the president would not improve the situation in the country, while Yatsenyuk said he supports inclusion of the draft to the agenda in the parliament and a gradual search for consensus on its adoption. In addition, the premier noted that rejection of examination of the president’s suggestions would be interpreted in the west as the resumption of the conflict between Tymoshenko and Poroshenko. It was a response to the proposal of the head of the Batkivshchyna faction in the parliament Serhiy Sobolev to withdraw the bill from consideration due to the fact that at the last moment the president made some changes to it. “As a result, most of the factions supported reservation of the document and the decision to explain our claims to the president,” said Bryhinets.

The Svoboda faction also refused to vote for the draft amendments to the fundamental law, stating that it did not agree with several proposed provisions, for example, regarding the decision of local councils on the language status.

At the same time, the UDAR party was ready to vote. “We have no reason not to vote for the draft. Usurpation is out of the question in a post-revolutionary Ukraine, where the public institution of the Maidan was formed. Anyone who wants to abuse power should be put where they belong,” said MP Serhiy Kaplin (UDAR) in a conversation with Capital.

Poroshenko had no allies besides the UDAR faction. Neither the factions of the Party of Regions nor independent MPs were eager to meet the president halfway. As a result, the MPs only included the president’s bill to the agenda of the session, but did not vote for it.

Failed Blitzkrieg

One of the leaders of the parliamentary group Sovereign European Ukraine Ihor Yeremeyev says the inclusion of Poroshenko’s bill to the agenda gives an opportunity for submission of the bill to the European Commission for Democracy through Law (Venice Commission). “And in two weeks it will be possible to examine the document again with additions and amendments and send it to the Constitutional Court,” Yeremeyev told Capital.

But the former presidential envoy in the parliament MP Yuriy Myroshnchenko (independent) stressed that the inclusion of the bill to the agenda prevents addition of any changes to the text of the document. “It will be necessary to withdraw the bill to change its text and submit it to the parliament again,” he said in an interview to Capital.

Myroshnichenko believes that the failure of the vote for Poroshenko’s draft of the Constitution demonstrated the conflict between the president and the coalition factions. “The conflict between Svoboda and Batkivshchyna on one side and the president on the other side is obvious. And today it became apparent,” said the MP.

Capital’s source in the UDAR faction called yesterday’s events “The president’s first defeat in the parliament”. According to him, the draft amendments were “openly unfinished” and the president counted on the Rada’s support, as it previously happened with successful vote on personnel matters. “He expected the parliament to vote in order to not run in the elections. But it did not work,” said the source.

In his turn, Sobolev said the Batkivshchyna party believes the further work on the text of the presidential draft of the Law On Amendments to the Constitution to be unpromising. For this reason, the faction is starting to collect 150 signatures for the registration of its own alternative document.

Vice Speaker Ruslan Koshulynskiy said in an interview to Capital that the Svoboda party will also submit its bill on amendments to the fundamental law.

As a reminder, earlier representatives of the Presidential Administration hoped that the bill would be passed in the first reading and submitted to the Constitutional Court. This would allow passing amendments to the Constitution in full at the next session in the fall, before the anticipated early parliamentary elections.