“Nowadays the unity of the political class in Ukraine is not a whim or an opportunity. It requires the unquestionable commitment of everyone who wants good for the State,” underlined Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk on his Ten Minutes program on Sunday 13.

Arseniy Yatsenyuk underlined that the truth is that the incumbent Government is technocratic: “By its very nature it cannot take decisions that are politically expedient. It takes long-term, correct decisions for the good of the nation which are understandably unpopular. The main task of the Government is to pull Ukraine away from the abyss, which requires an exceptional mobilization of effort. I believe that there are no other recipes.”

“Nowadays they say to the people that everything will suddenly turn good if to replace one or another person in the Government. This is pure fantasy. It’s not about the personalities. Without unity in the Parliament, without real unity with the President, the Government and the Parliament we will not achieve a breakthrough,” he emphasized.

The Government, Arseniy Yatsenyuk reminded, had proposed to the Parliament and our citizens an Action Plan for 2016. The programme is based on the principles of austerity, fair and prudent sharing of the costs, deregulation, demonoploisation, fiscal decentralization, the transparent privatization of state-owned companies and the creation of conditions for growth.

“We focus on specific priorities. These are the struggle against poverty, creating jobs, facilitating the procedures for providing services to the people, creating a new quality of schools and hospitals, the development of infrastructure, reform of tax and customs administrations and taking advantage of the Agreement on FTA with the European Union,” he stressed.

Arseniy Yatsenyuk called these issues “the most vital things to be done not tomorrow, but today, in this moment”, “And for that purpose we need a stable parliamentary coalition and mutual support between the President and the Government.”

“Early parliamentary elections are not an option. The choice, therefore, consists of two possibilities,” he stressed.

The first one supported by the Prime Minister involves the restoration of a parliamentary coalition, strengthening of the current composition of the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine, close cooperation between the Petro Poroshenko Bloc and the People’s Front and the democratic parliamentary forces and, most important, the continuation of reforms in the country initiated by this Government.

The second, as Arseniy Yatsenyuk emphasized, “the President of Ukraine and his faction, which is the largest in the Verkhovna Rada, take full responsibility and present a new Cabinet and new Prime Minister, new programme and hold talks with the parliamentary forces to support another Government and alternative programme.”

He said we don’t have much time for talking: “The price of delay is economic decline, the loss of control of the country, the loss of support of our Western friends and in the end – the loss of e verything we have achieved over the last two years.”

“Mr President, dear Bloc of Petro Poroshenko, the faction of the Radical Party and Oleg Lyashko, the faction of Samopomich and Andriy Sadovyi, the faction of Batkyvshchyna and Yulia Tymoshenko. The choice is up to you. I have made my choice,” pointed out Arseniy Yatsenyuk.

“Stop the backstabbing and this primitive race for power and seats. I and the members of my Cabinet are not clinging to power. I have fought and will fight for our country and the values and goals which the team of the People’s Front and I personally believe in. We will not stop this work,” Arseniy Yatsenyuk stressed.

Transcript: http://www.kmu.gov.ua/control/en/publish/article?art_id=248889594&cat_id=244851734

Video: http://www.kmu.gov.ua/control/en/videogallery/gallery?galleryId=248877798