The People’s Front Party has chances of putting its candidate up for the seat of the VR Speaker

Arseny Yatsenyuk and Alexander Turchinov aim different purposes in talks with the president

Photo: Konstantin Melnitsky

Speaker of the Verkhovna Rada Oleksandr Turchynov spoke in favor of postponing talks on the seat of the premier until next week, when the results of the parliamentary elections will be announced. People’s Front, which called for the president to address this issue before the voting day, has thus officially changed its position for the first time.

Negotiations on hold

The Petro Poroshenko Bloc (PPB) did not have time to prepare the draft of the coalition agreement before the elections, as the president insisted. Moreover, according to Capital’s information, over the past week the pro-presidential party and the People’s Front suspended talks on joint actions in the future parliament, a source in the PPB election headquarters stated failing to mention who initiated the termination of consultations.

Head of the headquarters of the People’s Front party and VR Speaker Oleksandr Turchynov also mentioned the postponement of talks until next week. He said holding talks on the post of the premier would be premature. «Nobody knows how many votes our party will garner. Moreover, forming the government will depend on this and only then it will become clear who the new premier will be,» said Turchynov, although he sees no alternative to Arseniy Yatsenyuk for this post.

Noteworthy is that the aggressive campaign of the People’s Front (PF) is based on Yatsenyuk’s aspirations of retaining his seat as premier. The party’s commercials and posters urge Ukrainians to give their votes for it on October 26, so that Yatsenyuk can continue serve as the country’s premier. The PF has repeatedly offered President Poroshenko to agree on the joint formation of a coalition prior to the parliamentary elections and discuss the candidacy of the head of the future Cabinet.
MP Ruslan Lukyanchuk of the Batkivshchyna party who is close to the current VR speaker and is running for a seat in the parliament on the PF party list assures that Turchynov’s statement on postponement of the negotiations was not made of his own self will. «Turchynov did not abandon the idea of Yatsenyuk’s nomination for the post of premier. He simply explained that the record will be set straight by the Ukrainian electorate and based on the results of voting we will be ready to discuss the nomination of the head of the government,» said Lukyanchuk.

Former Head of the Presidential Administration MP Serhiy Pashynskiy (Batkivshchyna) supports a similar version and assured Capital that resolving the issue of Yatsenyuk’s premiership is the «number one» task for the party.

Compliments to Turchynov

At the same time, Capital’s source in the election headquarters of the People’s Front explains Turchynov’s restraint with his desire not to incite tension with President Poroshenko, which could harm the future talks about forming a coalition and calls it a maneuver for the sake of his own interests.

«It was an offer to defer the talks regarding the premier until after the elections. It is possible that the speaker wants to retain his seat in the new parliament, though his premiership is questionable. If the president refuses to agree to Yatsenyuk as the premier outright, then he may offer the seat of the VR Speaker to Turchynov,» said the source, which assures that there is no difference in opinions regarding the future coalition between Yatsenyuk and Turchynov. The same version was confirmed by Capital’s source in the headquarters of the PPB. «During negotiations we have repeatedly stated that they could count on one position — either the premier or the speaker,» said the source.

Tyrchynov’s statement raised a wave of compliments to the speaker in the PPB. «Turchynov is probably the most experienced politician in the People’s Front and he did not want to look unprofessional, repeating the message regarding Yatsenyuk’s premiership after other speakers. I think he was referring to a different target audience from that on which the high-pressure advertising of his party relies. That audience realizes that the winner of the elections will get the seat of the premier,» said lawmaker Volodymyr Kurinniy (UDAR), who is engaged in the PPB’s election campaign in the Odesa oblast. «Turchynov showed that the party is running for the parliament for the idea, not some personal interests. And it seems that such an attitude is at odds with the interests of the current premier,» said MP Oleksandr Bryhinets (Batkivshchyna), who is running for the parliament on the list of the PPB.

Former MP Taras Chornovol saw in Turchynov’s statement an attempt to begin an independent game in the distribution of positions after the elections. «Yatsenyuk and Turchynov joined forces by a twist of fate, but they are different people. Turchynov, it seems to me, is well aware that Yatsenyuk overplayed by imposing himself as a premier and that Poroshenko will not give him that seat. But the president will share the speaker’s position with the People’s Front as a coalition partner, since Turchynov did a good job serving as the speaker,» said Chornovil. Capital’s source in the headquarters of the PPB does not rule out that the president’s team will try to play on this factor. «In the People’s Front there are people focused on Yatsenyuk and there are those that are focused on Turchynov. The negotiations will be tricky,» the source admitted.