Prime Minister resigns, risk of new crisis in Ukraine

According to analysts, the resignation of Mr. Arseny Yatseniuk will cause a new internal political crisis.

After the tensions that led to "fighting" at the National Assembly session two days ago, on July 24, new developments simultaneously occurred, threatening to push Ukrainian politics into a new crisis: In the morning, the Ukrainian Parliament passed a decision to end the activities of the Communist parliamentary group in the Parliament, and in the evening, the Prime Minister and the Government announced their resignation.

Ukrainian Prime Minister Arseny Yatseniuk (Photo: Reuters).

The reason for the dissolution of the Communist parliamentary group in the country's parliament was that it did not meet the minimum number of deputies to participate. The Communist forces won 33 seats in the Ukrainian parliament, after the 2012 parliamentary elections.

However, with the political developments that occurred this year, 10 MPs left the group, while the party had no replacements. This situation forced the Ukrainian Parliament to decide to dissolve the Communist faction.

Turchynov explained that under a new law passed by Ukraine on July 22, the Speaker of the Parliament has the right to dissolve a faction in the Parliament if it has fewer members than its initial size at the first sitting. However, Petro Symonenko, First Secretary of the Communist Party of Ukraine, has voiced his opposition to the move, saying that his party will challenge the decision in Ukrainian courts and the European Court of Human Rights.

Regarding the dissolution of the ruling coalition, previously, the nationalist Svoboda (Freedom) Party and the Udar (Punch) Party of former boxing champion Vitaly Klitschko both announced their withdrawal from the coalition. Therefore, Parliament Speaker Turtrinov announced that the dissolution of the coalition would pave the way for an early general election in the country.

Under Ukraine's constitution, parliament has 30 days to form a new coalition. If that effort fails, the president can then dissolve parliament and call for new elections.

After all these developments, on the evening of July 24, from the National Assembly session forum, Prime Minister Arsenyi Yatsenuyk announced his resignation and according to Ukrainian law, the entire Government must also resign.

Explaining his resignation and that of the government, Prime Minister Arsenyi Yatseniuk said that the government would not be able to function without a majority in parliament. In addition, he disagreed with the fact that lawmakers did not support the government's proposals for budget and tax changes that would cut social programs and put pressure on the country's operations.

“The majority coalition collapsed, laws were not passed and there was nothing to pay for soldiers, police, doctors, teachers… There was no money to buy weapons… Decisions to replenish Ukraine’s gas reserves, so we could survive the winter, were not passed… The government and the prime minister must resign. I declare my resignation!”, Mr. Yatseniuk declared.

The resignation of the Ukrainian Prime Minister and the Government, according to analysts, will cause a new internal political crisis since the presidential election in Ukraine in May.

Some opinions say that Prime Minister Yatseniuk's resignation is to shake off responsibility for the mounting difficulties that Ukraine has almost no way out of./.

According to VOV