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Advice from the European Parliament

Pottering calls on Ukrainian MPs to think about their country

It looks as though Ukrainian citizens are not the only ones worried about the temporary “turbulences” besetting the Ukrainian parliament. Consider the recent appeal to Ukrainian politicians by the president of the European Parliament Hans-Gert PЪttering to think about the country, not their own political ambitions. “My advice to Ukrainian politicians is to think about their country, not about who is going to be a candidate for the presidential post or a candidate to parliament two or three years from now. We are calling on our colleagues and friends in Kyiv to work for their country’s sake,” he said at a press conference after meeting with the speaker of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine Arsenii Yatseniuk.

The president of the European Parliament thinks that the more successful Ukrainian politicians will be in this process and the more they work for their country’s benefit, the better the chances for Ukraine’s approach to the European Union will be. “They should work for their country, not just for their political parties. The interests of the country come first — and personal ambitions after,” PЪttering emphasized.

Yatseniuk thinks that everything that is going on in Ukraine is not a political crisis, and that these events are taking place within the framework of so-called interim democracy. “I personally cannot see any political crisis. This is the way democracy works in an interim democracy. We need time for this,” he said. He expressed his confidence that this “temporary turbulence in the Ukrainian parliament will be overcome, and the opposition will become intellectual, not physical, and the coalition will be a strong one.”

The head of the Verkhovna Rada is also confident that Ukraine does not need early parliamentary elections. At the same time he admitted, “This depends on the political forces: either they want to work in parliament, or they want to have early parliamentary elections. It is a vicious circle. Let’s think about the country, not about individual politicians.”

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