Thursday, December 06, 2007

Why VR speaker is so important

A really good explanation why the Verkhovna Rada speaker's position, to which 'wunderkind' Arseniy Yatsenyuk was elected Tuesday, is so important, is provided in 'Kyiv Weekly'.

Here's a portion:

"The speaker is the person who decides when a certain bill that is favorable for a particular financial industrial group will be considered by the parliament, meaning now or never. When the talk is about re-distribution of segments of the market or privatization of strategically important assets (major industrial plants), time plays the key role without exaggeration.

In the current constitutional framework, the president does not necessarily need to have a 100% loyal government. In order to have control over the situation, the president only needs to have “his man” as the speaker of the house as this figure is key in ensuring that the president has an independent and confidential channel of talks between the branches of power. The president and his secretariat aim at distancing themselves from political games and intrigues, but still want to preserve their influence on the adoption of laws and the behavior of opposition and coalition allies. This is precisely why the position of the VR speaker by its status and authority is the best mechanism for protecting the president’s interests in the parliament...

If a “president-speaker” link is formed, the premier will become the technical executor of the political will of this dynamic duo. If the speaker coordinates his actions with the Presidential Administration, the head of government will be forced to coordinate every single step with the “boys on Bankova”.

If Yatsenyuk plays his cards right and gets ambitious, he could be in the running for the next presidential elections too..Who knows?

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