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Tymoshenko returns as Ukraine Premier

Yulia Tymoshenko.

The charismatic orange revolution leader, Yulia Tymoshenko, on Tuesday became Ukraine’s Prime Minister for the second time, after scraping through a parliamentary vote that appears to end months of political deadlock. Ms Tymoshenko won 226 votes in Ukraine’s 450-seat Rada — the exact number needed for her to take office. The vote came a week after her previous attempt to retake the Prime Minister’s job failed when she fell one vote short.

Her new government is made up of a pro-Western orange coalition between her bloc and the bloc led by Ukraine’s President Viktor Yushchenko.

Mr. Yushchenko and Ms Tymoshenko led Ukraine’s populist orange revolution three years ago but fell out in 2005. Mr. Yushchenko sacked her from the Prime Minister’s job after an uneven seven months in office. On Tuesday, officials from Mr. Yushchenko’s Fatherland party said that Ms Tymoshenko had “matured” as a leader.

They also claimed that her new coalition would be stable — despite its fragile majority.

“She has a two-seat majority. But potentially there is support from Ukraine’s minor parties,” a spokesman said, adding that the government’s priorities would be energy security, judicial reform, and eliminating corruption.

Viktor Yanukovich, Ukraine’s outgoing Prime Minister, on Tuesday conceded that Ms Tymoshenko had become Prime Minister and said his party of Regions would go into opposition. He predicted, though, that Ukraine’s latest orange coalition would not last. “The Ukrainian people will throw the populists away just like unwanted rubbish is thrown away in the spring after winter,” he told party workers.

Analysts said that the feuding between Ukraine’s rival political factions was, for the time being at least, at an end. They predicted the new government would last until the end of 2008, when Ukraine holds presidential elections.

At that point Ms Tymoshenko and Mr. Yushchenko, who are currently allies, would be rivals for the President’s job. “The government will last until the official start of the presidential campaign,” said Natalya Shapovalova, an expert at the International Centre for Policy Studies in Kiev.

She added that Ukraine was becoming more European — but this had little to do with the fact that pro-Western Ms Tymoshenko was now Prime Minister. “We need to thank ourselves. Civil society is learning how to behave in a new, highly competitive political environment,” she said.

Ms Tymoshenko’s in-tray contains numerous problems — most pressingly what to do about the country’s gas transport system, Naftogaz Ukrainy, which is on the verge of bankruptcy. She will also be keen on maintaining good relations with Vladimir Putin’s Russia, Ukraine’s main energy supplier.

At Tuesday’s ballot, Speaker Arseniy Yatsenyuk grinned as his vote, the last to be counted, gave Ms Tymoshenko the number she needed to win. After officials confirmed the tally, she took her seat in the chamber’s government section.

Ms Yushchenko was absent for the vote, but said on his website that the outcome provided grounds to suggest the coalition’s “steps to tackle the country’s top priorities will prove successful.” — ©Guardian Newspapers Limited, 2007

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