It did not take long for politicians to meet the President’s expectations: the leaders of factions of the Party of Regions, Communist Party of Ukraine, Lytvyn Bloc and some individual deputies signed the new coalition agreement. Volodymyr Lytvyn said that the new coalition members confirmed their decision to join the majority by their signatures, the list of which is enclosed to the coalition agreement. The new coalition became a reality.

Two factions – BYuT and NU-NS officially declared that they move to opposition. Ivan Kyrylenko, the BYuT faction leader, declared at the Parliament’s session that his faction, according to the rules of procedure of the Verkhovna Rada, adopted a decision to move to opposition to “the illegitimate coalition and illegitimate government” and is going to form an oppositional government. The corresponding protocol was submitted to the Verkhovna Rada Presidium.

Mykola Martynenko, the NU-NS faction leader, expressed a similar position, indicating that his faction will also move to opposition to the unconstitutional majority. He underscored that: “We are not going to become a branch of other political forces and will not let them take over the opposition in Ukraine. Personal revenge of politicians is not our goal; we stand for the development of Ukraine as a European state with European values.” It should be mentioned that the rules of procedure of the Verkhovna Rada do not envisage dualism in opposition, and the way the BYuT and NU-NS factions will share the “opposition mace” still remains an open question.

Before the voting for the new Prime Minister, the candidate for the post of the Head of Government, Mykola Azarov, declared from the parliament tribune: “We will do everything in our power for Ukraine to become a country governed by the rule of law, a country without corruption and dictate of political expediency, a country with the most favourable investment climate for individual investors and business structures, a country that protects human rights and freedoms of people within and outside of Ukraine, a country where there is no huge gap between the rich and poor and the middle class constitutes more than a half of population. ” He assured that the new Government will act according to the President Victor Yanukovych’s program “Ukraine for People”, and a team of professionals has been formed to implement it successfully.

Mykola Azarov defined his main goal at the post of Prime as elaborating and adopting a realistic budget for 2010 and underscored that “the key task of poverty reduction will be fulfilled through the budget.” He also mentioned that the adoption of the budget will resolve a lot of other issues, the run up to Euro-2012 in particular. Mykola Azarov assured that the draft budget for the current year will be submitted to the Verkhovna Rada in a month.

The newly-formed coalition instantly proved to be efficient and appointed Mykola Azarov the Prime Minister of Ukraine by 242 votes. The Parliament also voted for the new composition of the government, according to the proposal of the new Prime Minister (240 votes). The candidates suggested by the President were also supported by the majority of votes: Konstyantyn Hryshchenko was appointed the Foreign Minister, Mykhaylo Yezhel – the Minister for Defence and Valeriy Khoroshkovsky – the Head of the SSU.