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Timoshenko says Ukraine’s president should call for parliament’s emergency session

Ukraine’s parliament on February 16 failed to send Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk and his government to resignation

KIEV, February 21. /TASS/. Leader of Ukraine’s Batkivshchina (Fatherland) party Yulia Timoshenko addressed the president and speaker of parliament (Verkhona Rada) demanding they call for an emergency session of the parliament next week, the party’s website reported on Sunday.

"The requirement for that is the president’s will, nothing else: the president may call for a session of the parliament, and head of the Verkhovna Rada should announce an emergency session," she said. "I shall ask the president and head of the parliament to do so, as the way the are behaving now is, in fact, betrayal of Ukraine."

The party leader said about the "unrest in Maidan (central square), the government de-facto is ousted, the coalition has fallen apart, clans have seized the power", and thus she believes it inappropriate to announce a break in work, as the Rada’s next session is due on March 15 only.

"We have 28 days to decide: either we go for early elections and promise to people no clans and no clan-related deputies any more. Or, the president undertakes the responsibility for keeping the clan system in the country, protects again this government and protects his business interests and interests of his business counterparts, but then we may lose our statehood," Timoshenko said.

Ukraine’s parliament on February 16 failed to send Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk and his government to resignation. A no-confidence vote was supported by 194 lawmakers whereas at least 226 votes are needed to pass a resolution. So, the situation in the Ukrainian parliament looks quite paradoxical as several minutes before the no-confidence voting the Rada recognized the government’s work as unsatisfactory.