President of Ukraine Victor Yushchenko points to that
35% of Ukrainians would like to see Victor Yanukovich on the post of Prime
Minister of Ukraine, and 31.6% support candidature of Yulia Tymoshenko.
Yushchenko noted that this was the data from the latest
public polls. He also underscored that 47% of respondents back a coalition consisting
of Our Ukraine bloc, BYuT and Socialist Party. Hence, President stated, “orange
coalition is the best variant, as the people are waiting for this union.”
In response to the question whether the President
would agree to premiership of Tymoshenko, Yushchenko said he did not rule out that.
“But for today, the most important task for the orange forces is to find a
formula of stability of the coalition,” said the President.
Yushchenko added that he forbade negotiating on
distribution of positions. He explained that without determination of
principles and goals of the coalition “the discussion about portfolios would bury
once and for all the orange coalition.”
Among the priorities, which must be defined before coalition
formation, the President named settlement of privatization issue, determination
of the state position concerning UPA veterans, status of the Russian language,
Eurointegration.
In response to the question whether it is possible to
form “not-orange” coalition, but a coalition between OU and Party of Regions,
Yushchenko excluded such possibility for the moment. “But a situational cooperation
is possible, for example, concerning the issue of the state budget,” declared
the President in an interview to Gazeta Wyborcza.
At the same time the Head of State points out that the
orange coalition will have only 243 mandates in the Parliament, that is only 17
seats more than the opposition has. “Taking into account the present situation
in Ukraine, it is very weak advantage,” stated Yushchenko.
