Media: Poroshenko and Yatsenyuk’s parties make arrangements to unite
For several weeks already, the teams of President Petro Poroshenko and former Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk have been making arrangements for merging into one party for the elections, writes Ukrayinska Pravda in an article titled “Petro Poroshenko’s people’s front, or the United Ruling Party”.
According to the authors, the core of the new party could include Prosecutor General Yuriy Lutsenko, Verkhovna Rada Chairman Andriy Parubiy, NSDC (National Security and Defense Council) Secretary Oleksandr Turchynov, Prime Minister Volodymyr Groysman, Foreign Minister Arsen Avakov and former Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk. However, there are concerns about Parubiy.
Turchynov is said to be the primary ideologist of the “Petro Poroshenko Bloc” and the “People’s Front”.
The idea of a united party, which was voiced in April, came back to life at the start of the new political season. However, according to Ukrayinska Pravda, the negotiations are proceeding slowly and with difficulty.
There has not yet been any agreement as to who should lead the party. Yatsenyuk is in favor of the leader being a candidate for Prime Minister, whereas the BPP (Bloc of Petro Poroshenko) does not rule out the possibility of there being several leaders.
No decision has been made even regarding which of the political forces will be used as the basis for the creation of the party. Initially they will supposedly put a “social movement” into action, but in the meanwhile the BPP and PF (People’s Front) will start to merge local cells.
“Initially there were attempts to speak as if there would be two sides: Poroshenko and the BPP on the one hand, and Yatsenyuk and the PF on the other. But this kind of talk didn’t get far. Now Poroshenko is on his own, Lutsenko is on his own, Groysman is on his own, Yatsenyuk is on his own, Avakov and so on. Each one is trying to hammer in more for himself,” one of Poroshenko’s associates explained.
“Right now there are no quotas. We should choose the top ten. Everywhere you look, there are questions for people. But worst of all would be with the “mazhorytarka”. Firstly, not everyone wants to leave the ruling party, and secondly, there aren’t so many strong candidates,” explained one of the negotiation participants from the PF side.
Poroshenko’s team believes that “If we manage to unite, it will be by the end of the year. If nothing happens by the new year, it wasn’t meant to be”.
The BPP is afraid that the People’s Front might become opposition.
According to the PF, Yatsenyuk has voiced three possible courses of action: to go to the elections in one party with Poroshenko, to go united with Groysman, or “every man for himself”.
Poroshenko wants to be the only candidate in the elections so that he can have a second term of presidency. According to sources in the BPP, in the last third of August, “everyone was told to be reconciled”.