Tymoshenko is preparing to return to the political scene under the classic slogans

Yulia Tymoshenko is no longer willing to watch big league politics from the sidelines

Photo: PHL

A congress of the Batkivshchyna party will be held at the end of August, according to Capital’s sources. The forum will host the first public appearance of ex-premier Yulia Tymoshenko this month. Only staff decisions and summing up the results of lustration of the party members are expected at the congress. Instead of new ideas voters will hear from Tymoshenko traditional criticism of the current government.

A play in two acts

A member of the Policy Council of the Batkivshchyna party Volodymyr Bondarenko told Capital that the congress will be held in two stages. The first is scheduled for August 28 during which Tymoshenko plans to address staff issues. The decision on the second stage will be made by the Policy Council of the party after the announcement of the date of early parliamentary elections. At the moment, September 3 or 5 are considered as possible dates.

The congress will be the first public event with the participation of Tymoshenko over the past month. After losing the presidential election the ex-premier refused to participate in talk shows on TV and mass events. She was last seen at the beginning of July, when MPs from the Batkivshchyna faction headed by Tymoshenko donated blood for the needs of soldiers involved in the anti-terrorist operations (ATO) at the Kyiv City Blood Donation Center.

Tymoshenko’s press secretary Maryna Soroka told Capital that recently the ex-premier has been dealing with the reorganization of the party. “She is well and currently working in Kyiv,” said Soroka. She neither confirmed nor denied the information on the Party Congress, assuring that all activities will be announced on the Batkivshchyna website.

Tymoshenko dodging blocs

Bondarenko says that participants of the congress will discuss the non-fulfillment of the requirements of the Euro-Maidan by the new government. “Soon there will be many questions to the new government. First of all, they will pertain to European integration and lustration, which were the basic demands of the Euro-Maidan,” said Bondarenko. He also stressed that the heads of the regional organizations of Batkivshchyna whose actions have resulted in Tymoshenko’s unsatisfactory results at the presidential election have been dismissed from their posts.

Noteworthy is that immediately after the presidential election, Tymoshenko announced the reorganization of the party structure. In the meantime, it seems that she has been limited to cleansing of the party ranks – the second time in the last five years.

Member of the Presidium of the Policy Council of Batkivshchyna Dmytro Shlemko told Capital that at the beginning of August more than 1,500 members were excluded from the party, including members of local councils. He noted that first and foremost they were employees in the education and health sectors, who collaborated with local authorities controlled by the Party of Regions. Another group of individuals excluded from the party are those who took part in the last parliamentary and presidential elections in teams of the Batkivshchyna’s political opponents. According to Shlemko, the issue of accountability of MPs – members of the Batkivshchyna parliamentary faction – will soon be addressed.

“On August 11, with the participation of Tymoshenko the political council made a decision on voting for the amendments to the election laws obligatory for all factions. But 21 MPs supported the bill proposed by Andriy Ivanchuk, which we opposed,” said Shlemko. He says many MPs are members of the Front for Change, the For Ukraine faction or independent lawmakers, so their exclusion from Batkivchshchyna is out of the question.

As a reminder, on August 14 the MPs refused to consider three bills on the introduction of amendments to the electoral system. The documents did not garner the required number of votes for inclusion in the agenda. In particular, the bill proposed by Ivanchuk (a member of Batkivshchyna) provided for elections base on a mixed system, though it permitted the participation of electoral blocs.

Shlemko notes that the return of blocs to Ukrainian politics is a blow to the Batkivshchyna faction. “If the Law On Elections allows blocs, it will have a negative impact on Batkivshchyna – the process of splitting will only turn for the worse,” said the MP, acknowledging that currently the party has several groups of influence. Lawmaker Volodymyr Yavorivskiy of Batkivshchyna confirmed that the format of participation in the upcoming elections is being debated with Arseniy Yatsenyuk and Oleksandr Turchynov. Capital’s source in the faction said the independent participation of the premier and the VR speaker in the upcoming election has been discussed on the sidelines of the parliament for several weeks. According to the source a final decision on this issue has been yet to be made.