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.
A fire caused by a burst gas pipe yesterday spread to several homes and sent a fireball soaring into the sky outside Malaysia’s largest city, injuring more than 100 people. The towering inferno near a gas station in Putra Heights outside Kuala Lumpur was visible for kilometers and lasted for several hours. It happened during a public holiday as Muslims, who are the majority in Malaysia, celebrate the second day of Eid al-Fitr. National oil company Petronas said the fire started at one of its gas pipelines at 8:10am and the affected pipeline was later isolated. Disaster management officials said shutting the
DITCH TACTICS: Kenyan officers were on their way to rescue Haitian police stuck in a ditch suspected to have been deliberately dug by Haitian gang members A Kenyan policeman deployed in Haiti has gone missing after violent gangs attacked a group of officers on a rescue mission, a UN-backed multinational security mission said in a statement yesterday. The Kenyan officers on Tuesday were on their way to rescue Haitian police stuck in a ditch “suspected to have been deliberately dug by gangs,” the statement said, adding that “specialized teams have been deployed” to search for the missing officer. Local media outlets in Haiti reported that the officer had been killed and videos of a lifeless man clothed in Kenyan uniform were shared on social media. Gang violence has left
US Vice President J.D. Vance on Friday accused Denmark of not having done enough to protect Greenland, when he visited the strategically placed and resource-rich Danish territory coveted by US President Donald Trump. Vance made his comment during a trip to the Pituffik Space Base in northwestern Greenland, a visit viewed by Copenhagen and Nuuk as a provocation. “Our message to Denmark is very simple: You have not done a good job by the people of Greenland,” Vance told a news conference. “You have under-invested in the people of Greenland, and you have under-invested in the security architecture of this
Japan unveiled a plan on Thursday to evacuate around 120,000 residents and tourists from its southern islets near Taiwan within six days in the event of an “emergency”. The plan was put together as “the security situation surrounding our nation grows severe” and with an “emergency” in mind, the government’s crisis management office said. Exactly what that emergency might be was left unspecified in the plan but it envisages the evacuation of around 120,000 people in five Japanese islets close to Taiwan. China claims Taiwan as part of its territory and has stepped up military pressure in recent years, including