Ukraine looks to new pro-EU government after PM quits

Ukraine prepared Monday to usher in a stable new pro-Western government following the resignation of Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk over public anger with his seeming inability to fight government graft.

Yatsenyuk’s announcement on Sunday came barely two months after he survived a no-confidence vote in parliament that left the government paralysed and put the release of vital foreign aid on hold.

The former Soviet republic has been roiled by a pro-Russian eastern revolt and an economic collapse that has wiped out people’s savings and stirred public resentment toward the government since Yatsenyuk assumed office in February 2014.

“Having done everything to ensure stability and make a smooth transition of power possible, I decided to step down from the post of prime minister of Ukraine,” the 41-year-old said in a weekly television address.

President Petro Poroshenko’s party has proposed replacing Yatsenyuk with parliament speaker Volodymyr Groysman — a coalition builder who has gained stature by keeping the notoriously-rowdy chamber in relative peace since his appointment in November 2014.

But some economists fear that the 38-year-old Poroshenko protege may lack the toughness needed to stand up to a handful of tycoons who have dominated Ukraine’s fractious politics for years.

Parliament is to decide whether to accept Yatsenyuk’s resignation Tuesday at what is expected to be a marathon session that might also see a vote on Groysman’s candidacy.

Yatsenyuk’s party member Anton Gerashchenko wrote on Facebook that there were “more than enough votes” needed to accept the premier’s resignation.

Yet what comes next is far less clear.

– A reform-oriented government –

The parliamentary factions headed by Poroshenko and Yatsenyuk have been trying for weeks to muster the majority necessary to push through a new cabinet leader and form a government that could appease the other dissatisfied parties.

But smaller groups such as the one headed by former prime minister Yulia Tymoshenko have pulled out of the pro-EU coalition that formed in wake of the February 2014 ouster of Ukraine’s despised Russian-backed president Viktor Yanukovych.

Tymoshenko’s party and other factions that also broke ranks with the government have so far been noncommittal about whether they were ready to see Groysman assume one of Ukraine’s two top posts.

This confusion comes against the backdrop of fierce jostling for top cabinet seats and a raging trade war with Russia that has hurt producers and further stalled Ukraine’s return to economic growth.

Groysman himself warmly praised Yatsenyuk for his decision but said nothing about his own chances of becoming the next premier.

“I understand that this was a thought-through and dignified step, perhaps a difficult one, but one that deserves respect,” Interfax-Ukraine quoted Groysman as saying.

He called on parliament to quickly forge a coalition “that can form a new reform-driver government and choose a prime minister, thus ensuring the inevitability of (Ukraine’s) European integration.”

US Vice President Joe Biden on Sunday also thanked Yatsenyuk “for his partnership during a historic time for Ukraine”.

– Finance ministry opening –

Analysts and the Ukrainian media predict that one of the most important changes in the government will involve the departure of Finance Minister Natalie Jaresko.

The US-born former State Department worker and private banker has been widely praised by the West for being able to pull together a crucial debt restructuring deal in August 2015.

Yet she is unlikely to serve under Groysman after herself volunteering for the premiership post.

Slovakia’s former deputy prime minister Ivan Miklos has agreed to join the government if he can keep his citizenship and is given the freedom to pursue the belt-tightening measures prescribed by the IMF under its $17.5-billion (15.4 billion-euro) Ukrainian rescue plan.

But the Ukrainska Pravda news site quoted sources as saying that Miklos will “definitely” not replace Jaresko at the crucial post.

zak/hmw