Former prime minister Yulia Tymoshenko’s party on Wednesday quit Ukraine’s ruling pro-Western coalition after the government survived a no-confidence vote, accusing it of being a stooge of shadowy tycoons.
The fiery former 2004 pro-EU Orange Revolution co-leader’s Batkivshchyna (Fatherland) party is the smallest of the four groups that comprised the ruling majority in Ukraine’s increasingly splintered chamber.
Fifteen of her party’s 19 lawmakers voted in favour of Prime Minister Viktor Yatsenyuk’s dismissal on Tuesday.
But deputies only mustered 194 of the 226 votes needed in the 450-seat parliament to force the government out.
“This morning, the Batkivshchyna party has made the only decision possible -- to leave the coalition”, Tymoshenko wrote on Facebook.
She also called on other deputies “who care about the country” to follow suit.
“We must clearly state that the pro-European coalition in parliament never existed,” she added in a statement released by her party.
Tymoshenko further accused lawmakers comprising the ruling majority of following the orders of shady businessmen “who formed the government and ruled the country.”
Her decision may complicate the government’s ability to push through reforms sought by Ukraine’s Western allies and the International Monetary Fund before they release new disbursements of vital financial aid.