Whether you love the lady in the braids or simply can’t stand her, there is no denying that it has been an action-packed and explosive first hundred days for Tymoshenko’s new administration. The country’s World Trade Association membership ambitions have finally been realised after over ten years of dawdling and indecisiveness, while relations with the EU have benefited from an entirely new dynamic as Tymoshenko has made a series of well-received visits to Brussels with her team of integration experts.
On the home front campaign pledges to raise pensions, increase social payments and initiate a repayment scheme for the millions who lost their life savings in the Soviet banking collapse of 1991 have been followed through, leading to both widespread acclaim and accusations of dangerously inflationary populism. The most ambitious privatisation programme in years has been put together and an advisory council of foreign investors set up.
Crusading style attracts enemies
There have been plenty of clashes along the way. Tymoshenko’s crusade against what she terms as corrupt energy market middlemen has brought her into direct conflict with both President Yushchenko and the Kremlin, while her support for a NATO Membership Action Plan led to a parliamentary blockade by the Party of Regions which kept the legislature from functioning for much of her first hundred days. Speculation continues to mount that the rift between Tymoshenko and the President will soon lead to all-out political hostilities, with Presidential chief of staff Viktor Baloha already in position at the head of a breakaway faction within the Orange coalition.
Far away from the Machiavellian schemes of the Ukrainian political Mount Olympus both local and international businesses have expressed grave concerns over the new and apparently indiscriminate zeal being displayed by the tax police, while increased pressures on the customs service to increase revenues has also led to more bureaucracy and delays. All in all, the first hundred days has not been a record of unblemished success by any means but they have been marked by a sense of movement that has long been lacking.
Steering the good ship Ukraine
Tymoshenko’s greatest single achievement so far has been to create this sense of momentum and direction. Finally, local sages have pointed out, there is a master in the house. Coming as it does after the stultifying limbo of the multi-vector policies favoured by Kuchma, Yanukovych and, to a lesser extent Yushchenko, it is no surprise that Tymoshenko’s strong leadership is being welcomed across the country, and her popularity is rising accordingly. For the first time ever Tymoshenko has been placed well ahead of the field in every recent opinion poll, with both Yushchenko and Yanukovych registering alarming drops.
As her ratings soar higher and higher, Tymoshenko’s closest political rivals have been left looking particularly inept. Yushchenko appears blinded by personal rivalry and bent on asserting his authority via the unusual medium of constant sniping and criticism, while Yanukovych has resorted to rabble-rousing and banging on the outdated, Cold War era anti-NATO drum. With opponents of this calibre, it is hard to see where any serious political challenge could come from.
From Gas Princess to Queen Yulia
Such is Tymoshenko’s apparent ascendancy at present that there is a genuine danger we could all get rather carried away. In other words, the country could be about to experience a full-blown personality cult of its own just when the multi-party system was showing signs of taking root.
Certainly some of those in the entourage of this iconic politician would appear to have let her high ratings go somewhat to their heads. Arriving late at a routine Tymoshenko press conference recently I witnessed a first-hand example of this as I was refused entry by a snooty security chap who felt the need to add, “And when the English queen opens the Houses of Parliament in Westminster, are you late for that too?” Such things would never have entered anyone’s head under Kuchma. Despite this kind of pomposity and presumption, however, Tymoshenko is not quite ready to be crowned Queen Yulia just yet but she is clearly well on the way to eclipsing her opponents.
