The Ukrainian president cried foul on Wednesday after parliament clipped his presidential powers — with more bad news in store as diplomats said hopes of EU membership would be deflated at a summit next week.
Members of parliament from President Viktor Yushchenko’s Our Ukraine party pulled out of the ruling pro-Western coalition it shared with Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko’s party during the night between Tuesday and Wednesday.
The presidential party condemned new laws passed on Tuesday by the Tymoshenko Bloc and the pro-Moscow opposition that would reduce Yushchenko’s powers and make it easier to impeach him.
Yushchenko described the vote as a bid to establish a “dictatorship of the prime minister.”
“A political and constitutional coup d’etat has started in the parliament,” Yushchenko said in a speech televised Wednesday.
Despite sharing her pro-West political goals, including accession to NATO and the EU, Tymoshenko has often been sharply at odds with the president and there is intense personal rivalry between the two.
Tymoshenko insisted that the purpose of the new laws was to clearly distinguish the offices of president and prime minister, and accused Yushchenko of destroying the pro-Western alliance.
“The real reason the president has declared this war against me personally and against all the democratic team is sadly enough to ensure his victory in the next presidential elections,” Tymoshenko said.
She promised to launch talks starting yesterday aimed at “consolidating” the political elite.
“I am convinced that the work of the democratic coalition will be renewed,” Tymoshenko later said in a televised address. “You have 10 days ... to return to the coalition.”
The political fallout could make Ukraine’s EU bid lose even more steam.
France, which holds the EU’s rotating presidency, recently warmed to Ukraine’s candidature, the French ambassador said.
However, after fresh talks by ambassadors of the 27 EU nations on Wednesday, a draft declaration prepared for an EU-Ukraine summit in Evian, France, next Tuesday tells another story, diplomats said.
EU member states agree that the partnership agreement currently being negotiated with Ukraine should be called an “Association Agreement” — the term used for similar pacts with Balkan nations which have a recognized future within the European bloc.
However, the draft declaration makes no mention of the key “European perspective” for Ukraine, which Kiev had been hoping for and which is familiar eurospeak for an eventual goal of EU membership.
‘TERRORIST ATTACK’: The convoy of Brigadier General Hamdi Shukri resulted in the ‘martyrdom of five of our armed forces,’ the Presidential Leadership Council said A blast targeting the convoy of a Saudi Arabian-backed armed group killed five in Yemen’s southern city of Aden and injured the commander of the government-allied unit, officials said on Wednesday. “The treacherous terrorist attack targeting the convoy of Brigadier General Hamdi Shukri, commander of the Second Giants Brigade, resulted in the martyrdom of five of our armed forces heroes and the injury of three others,” Yemen’s Saudi Arabia-backed Presidential Leadership Council said in a statement published by Yemeni news agency Saba. A security source told reporters that a car bomb on the side of the road in the Ja’awla area in
PRECARIOUS RELATIONS: Commentators in Saudi Arabia accuse the UAE of growing too bold, backing forces at odds with Saudi interests in various conflicts A Saudi Arabian media campaign targeting the United Arab Emirates (UAE) has deepened the Gulf’s worst row in years, stoking fears of a damaging fall-out in the financial heart of the Middle East. Fiery accusations of rights abuses and betrayal have circulated for weeks in state-run and social media after a brief conflict in Yemen, where Saudi airstrikes quelled an offensive by UAE-backed separatists. The United Arab Emirates is “investing in chaos and supporting secessionists” from Libya to Yemen and the Horn of Africa, Saudi Arabia’s al-Ekhbariya TV charged in a report this week. Such invective has been unheard of
US President Donald Trump on Saturday warned Canada that if it concludes a trade deal with China, he would impose a 100 percent tariff on all goods coming over the border. Relations between the US and its northern neighbor have been rocky since Trump returned to the White House a year ago, with spats over trade and Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney decrying a “rupture” in the US-led global order. During a visit to Beijing earlier this month, Carney hailed a “new strategic partnership” with China that resulted in a “preliminary, but landmark trade agreement” to reduce tariffs — but
SCAM CLAMPDOWN: About 130 South Korean scam suspects have been sent home since October last year, and 60 more are still waiting for repatriation Dozens of South Koreans allegedly involved in online scams in Cambodia were yesterday returned to South Korea to face investigations in what was the largest group repatriation of Korean criminal suspects from abroad. The 73 South Korean suspects allegedly scammed fellow Koreans out of 48.6 billion won (US$33 million), South Korea said. Upon arrival in South Korea’s Incheon International Airport aboard a chartered plane, the suspects — 65 men and eight women — were sent to police stations. Local TV footage showed the suspects, in handcuffs and wearing masks, being escorted by police officers and boarding buses. They were among about 260 South
RSS