Turchynov gives up his seat to Groysman

Oleksandr Turchynov frees executive chair in Rada for a person of president

Photo: Ivan Chernichkin

The Verkhovna Rada begins its work in a week on November 27. The first session of the Ukrainian parliament will be headed by Vice Premier Volodymyr Groysman until the new speaker is elected. Representatives of the Petro Poroshenko Bloc do not rule out the possibility that Groysman will remain in the speaker’s seat for quite some time.

Without discussions

Yesterday the future people’s deputies gathered for the first meeting of the preparation group for organizing the work of the new parliament. There were two issues on the agenda – election of the leadership of the preparation group and determining the date of the first session of the new parliament. Representatives of all parties that won the elections and first-past-the-post deputies attended the meeting. Self-nominated winners were represented by Vitaliy Khomutynnyk, who is actively conducting talks on creating his own deputy group, and Volodymyr Lytvyn. The press gave most attention to the former head of the Presidential Administration Serhiy Lyovochkin, who represented the Opposition Bloc. “The government must fulfill two obligations: to adopt the law on the opposition and supply opposition with control levers. This is in the interests of the ruling authority and society,” Lyovochkin told Capital before the start of the meeting, speaking about the first demand of the party. “The only thing that the opposition approached the group with is to immediately consider the law on opposition,” said Andriy Kozhemyakin, a member of Batkivshchyna, after the meeting.

The meeting of the preparation group lasted for around two hours. “The decisions were approved almost unanimously. Nobody voted against, but some members abstained. In addition to that, practically no discussions were held,” Oksana Syroyed, a member of Samopomich, told Capital.

In order to avoid disagreements, in the beginning of the meeting VR Speaker Oleksandr Turchynov proposed to expand the presidium of the VR from three to six members so that all parties that won the elections were represented in it. This proposal was supported by the attendees, though it was not voted in, according to information that Capital possesses. For this reason, the first session of the parliament will be headed by the leadership of the preparation group, which was elected yesterday. The deputies decided that representative of the PPB Volodymyr Groysman would chair the group, while Oksana Syroyed will serve as his deputy and candidate from People’s Front Pavlo Pynzenyk – the secretary of the group.

Right after the announcement of the leadership of the preparation group Turchynov resigned from his position as the VR Speaker. “It is still early to say that Groysman will become the new speaker of the parliament. This issue has not been resolved. There is a tradition, however, that the head of the preparation group becomes the speaker of the parliament,” a source in the PPB told Capital.

Groysman claims that it is still early to speak about the new speaker. “I don’t want to discuss an issue that is not on the agenda,” he told journalists.

Participants of yesterday’s meeting assured Capital that the only minor disagreement was the date of the first session. Turchynov considered the option of a solemn opening on December 2, while Batkivshchyna representative Serhiy Sobolev suggested it could happen on November 25. As a result, after an hour of the meeting behind closed doors the deputies opted for the third variant – the VR will begin to work on November 27.

Committees to be recalculated

The meeting of the preparation group will continue today, as yesterday its participants failed to consider the issue of distribution of the parliamentary committees. One of the reasons is that the deputies haven’t decided yet how many committees should there be in the new parliament. “We are planning to optimize the number of committees. There are different proposals, even cutting them from 29 to 20. I think we will choose something in between – 22-25,” PPB representative Vitaliy Kovalchuk told Capital.

People’s Front representative Vyacheslav Kyrylenko assured the publication that the premier’s team has not yet discussed the issue of distribution of committees. Sobolev said Batkivshchyna expected to chair the committees, which the faction chaired in the previous convocation of the parliament. These are committees on the fight against organized crime, law enforcement bodies, deregulation of small businesses, foreign policy and European integration. However, Samopomich also wants the European integration committee. Syroyed specified that they are also interested in the committee for local self-government, culture, fighting organized crime, the transport infrastructure and justice.

Lyovochkin said the Opposition Bloc will lay claims on committees that have controlling functions, though he did not specify which ones. “The regulatory committee will be on this list, though not at the top,” he emphasized. The group will begin considering the future of the parliamentary committees today at 3:00 pm.