The centre-right European People’s Party is backing Yulia Tymoshenko, a former prime minister and one of the leaders of the Orange Revolution of a decade ago.
The EPP said that Tymoshenko would attend a congress in Dublin next week (6-7 March) at which the party is supposed to choose its lead candidate for elections to the European Parliament. Early presidential and parliamentary elections in Ukraine are scheduled to take place on 25 May, the day when most EU member states vote for their MEPs. Tymoshenko’s Batkivshchyna (Fatherland) party is a member of the EPP.
But not everyone in the EPP is delighted about the invitation to Dublin. The fiery Tymoshenko is a divisive figure, and her return from prison complicates things for Arseniy Yatsenyuk, a 39-year-old former foreign minister and central-bank governor who led the party in her absence. Yatsenyuk is probably the leader that EU and US officials find most easy to deal with. Unlike Tymoshenko, he is not tainted by past political and business activities, but he lacks her charisma and eloquence. He is expected to lead a transition government, but it is unclear what role he might take after the election. Elmar Brok, a centre-right German MEP who chairs the Parliament’s foreign-affairs committee, has given his backing to Yatsenyuk, whom he described as “very impressive” and “certain to implement reform”. Brok led a 12-member Parliament mission to Ukraine last weekend, when Yanukovych was ousted.
Hannes Swoboda, the leader of the centre-left Socialists and Democrats, meanwhile launched a scathing attack on Tymoshenko.
“The Orange Revolution failed because the people at the time, including Tymoshenko, were not up to standard,” he said. “It is not for us to promote forces that haven’t been very successful and positive for the country. It needs a new start, new people.”
Swoboda said that the danger was that one group of oligarchs would be replaced by another group of oligarchs. He declared that the Socialist group was “very happy” about Yanukovych’s downfall. Yanukovych’s Party of Regions in 2010 signed a co-operation agreement with the Socialists and Democrats group.