All news

Ukraine’s parliament to have ruling coalition of 4 factions — presidential representative

Earlier on Tuesday, Oleg Lyashko, the leader of Ukraine’s Radical Party, said his political force was quitting the ruling coalitions in the Verkhovna Rada

KIEV, September 1. /TASS/. The parliamentary majority in the Ukrainian Verkhovna Rada (parliament) will be made up of four faction, Stepan Kubiv, the presidential representative at the national legislature, said on Tuesday.

"The coalition of the Petro Poroshenko Bloc, Popular Front, Samopomoch (Self-help) and Batkivshchina (Fatherland) will be preserved. It will have four factions," he told journalists after a meeting with Rada speaker Vladimir Groisman.

However, he noted, consultations on how to preserve the coalition would be continued on Wednesday. He said the issue of Samopomoch’s possible quitting the coalition had not been raised at the meeting. "No, we did not discuss this issue," he said.

Earlier on Tuesday, Oleg Lyashko, the leader of Ukraine’s Radical Party, said his political force was quitting the ruling coalitions in the Verkhovna Rada due to disagreement over the president-proposed draft of the constitutional reform. The party had 21 votes out of the coalition’s 302. Hence, even minus the Radical Party’s votes, the coalition will have enough votes (more than 226) to pass practically all resolutions, but for issues related to the constitutional changes. Such issues require the constitutional majority, or 300 votes.