The 2008 Ukrainian political crisis started after President Viktor Yushchenko's Our Ukraine–People's Self-Defense Bloc (NU-NS) withdrew from the governing coalition following a vote on a bill (4 September 2008) to limit the President's powers in which the Prime Minister's Bloc Yulia Tymoshenko (BYuT) voted with the opposition Party of Regions. The bill would have required the consent of the Prime Minister for the appointment and dismissal of the Prosecutor General by the President, given the government power to appoint local heads of government if the President rejects the candidates, stripped from the President the right to reject a candidate for Prime Minister, dismiss the Defense, Interior and Foreign Ministers, and appoint a head of the State Intelligence Service. President Yushchenko stated that a clear position on the events in Georgia was one of the conditions under which return to talks in the Parliament was possible, as well as the repeal of all the constitutional laws adopted after 3 September. Yushchenko claimed that a "de-facto coalition" was formed with 'no other aims but to conduct coup d'état and usurp power in the country'. Tymoshenko stated that the real intentions behind the President's party in 'declaring war on her' was to ensure his victory in the next presidential election, although she still called for a reformation of the coalition between the two parties. She also reiterated her position on the Georgian conflict, claiming to be neutral and more in line with the EU.
Yuri Lutsenko leader of Civil Movement "People's Self-Defense" (part of the Our Ukraine–People's Self-Defense Bloc) said that the breakup of the coalition was provoked by the Secretariat of the President and that "People’s Self Defense" was categorically against it.
Foreign media reported that the political crisis was sparked by the armed conflict between Russia and Georgia that started in early August 2008 and began with a dispute between President Viktor Yushchenko and Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko over Ukraine's reaction to that conflict. The President gave his support for Georgia and strong criticism of Russia whereas other parties professed more balanced positions towards the two parties of that conflict. On 16 September, the collapse of the BYuT/NU-NS coalition was officially announced. Following the failure to re-create the coalition, the Ukrainian parliament was dissolved by president Yushchenko on 8 October 2008, giving way to the third parliamentary election in three years.
Poland’s former President Aleksander Kwaśniewski stated dismissing Verkhovna Rada, Yushchenko "shot himself in the foot. There was a chance to create a wide democratic coalition of BYUT, NUNS and the Lytvyn bloc, and we were working on it. Pres Yushchenko 'may suffer a substantial pratfall'.”
The crisis ended when the Orange Coalition was reformed on 9 December 2008, but including Lytvyn's Bloc after Volodymyr Lytvyn was elected as parliamentary speaker the day before.
Read more about 2008 Ukrainian Political Crisis: Treason Accusation, Coalition Collapses, Opposition To Presidential Decree, End of Crisis, See Also
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