The coalition will distribute offices until the time of voting

Personnel matters interfere with the deputies to focus on more pressing issues

Photo: Konstantin Melnitskiy

Yesterday, the Presidential Commission on Citizenship granted Ukrainian citizenship to co-founder of Horizon Capital Natalya Yaresko, ex-Minister of Healthcare of Georgia Alexander Kvitashvili and a partner at the East Capital Investment Company Aivaras Abramovichus. They were nominated by the Petro Poroshenko Bloc (PPB) as candidates for ministerial posts in the new government, for which MPs are going to vote today. However, besides approval of these candidates the coalition has nothing to boast about regarding staffing issues, which could delay, if not disrupt, today’s voting.

Gnarly committees

MP Serhiy Pashynskiy (People’s Front) says there are three issues on the agenda: establishment of parliamentary committees and their composite, approval of the schedule of VR sessions and election of the new Cabinet of Ministers. “The issues of the committees and the Cabinet remain controversial and consultations may continue on Tuesday prior to the plenary session,” says Pashynskiy. He adds that the other day the coalition failed to persuade Samopomіch to agree to the quota of the distribution of committees.

Capital’s source in the PPB said that given the current situation the Poroshenko’s bloc and the PF faction proposed the leader of Samopomich and Lviv Mayor Andriy Sadoviy for the post of First Vice Premier. “Expectedly, Sadoviy turned down the proposal. It appears that they are getting on each other’s nerves,” said the source.

Chairman of the Samopomich faction Oleh Berezyuk explained that its position on the committees is connected “with the desire to break the old approaches to the work of the parliament”. “We have the full support of Batkivshchyna and Lyashko’v party, as well as a number of young MPs in the People’s Front and the PPB. But for now those politicians are not speaking about this publicly,” says Berezyuk.

Deputy Chair of the Radical Party faction Andriy Lozoviy says the People’s Front and Samopomіch cannot agree on positions in the leadership of the Verkhovna Rada. “They are arguing about whose candidate will take the seat of the First Vice Speaker and whose will be the Vice Speaker. The PF candidate is Andriy Teteruk and the Samopomich candidate is Oksana Syroyid. Alternatively, Syroyid will go to the Committee on Legal Policy,” said Lozoviy.

Capital’s source in the PF says that the party also cannot agree with Sadoviy’s team on the Anti-Corruption Committee, the candidates for which are Yehor Sobolev and Andriy Parubiy, and the Committee on National Security claimed by Serhiy Pashynsky and Semen Semenchenko.

There is much controversy regarding positions even within factions. For example, Capital’s source in the PPB says the faction cannot choose the heads of the Tax Committee, the Environment Committee and the Transport Committee.

Foreign legion

MP Viktor Chumak (PPB) says his faction submitted its foreign candidates for appointment to the government to be discussed by the coalition. As such, Kvitashvili was suggested for the post of Minister of Healthcare as he previously held a similar position in Georgia. Aivaras Abramovichus, a partner of the Swedish investment company East Capital, was proposed for the office of the Minister of Economy, and American Natalia Yaresko, co-founder of Horizon Capital, was offered the position of Finance Minister.

“The meeting of the Commission on Citizenship has just ended, now they are citizens of Ukraine,” he said on Monday night. We would like to note that earlier Sadoviy proposed Yaresko for the office of the First Vice Premier in response to the proposal from the PPB and the PF.

Capital’s source in the PPB said the faction also agreed to the candidacies of Serhiy Kvit for the post of the Minister of Education, the head of the National Commission for State Energy and Public Utilities Regulation Volodymyr Demchyshyn for the office of Energy Minister and Pavlo Rozenko for the position of Minister of Social Policy. The PPB will also nominate the First Deputy Chief of the Presidential Administration Hennadiy Zubko as First Vice Premier.

Deputy Chairman of the RP faction Valeriy Vashchevsky said that its MPs will support the candidacies from the PPB and would not nominate any candidates of its own. “We are still undecided. The distribution of committees in the parliament and the future work of the government remain unclear,” says Vashchevskiy, who is promoted by Lyashko’s party as the head of the Budget Committee.

Batkivshchyna received no proposals for seats in the Cabinet. “If we are offered, we are ready to share the responsibility. For now we have not received any proposals,” said MP Oleksandra Kuzhel (Batkivshchyna). She added that it is unlikely that the leaders of the factions would agree on candidates before the voting.

MP Pavlo Rozenko (PPB) said that the faction agreed to give a hearing to each minister. He did not rule out that because of this procedure the vote on the composition of the government would be moved to Wednesday. But Chumak assures that the president's team intends to elect the government today. Given this, it will be a hard day’s work for the MPs.