**************************************************** (Source: RFE/RL.) CENTRAL & EASTERN EUROPE 27 February 2001 UKRAINIAN COMMUNISTS TO HOLD ANTI-GOVERNMENT PROTESTS IN MARCH ================================================================== The Communist Party of Ukraine (KPU) is going to hold a nationwide protest action from 12-17 March under the slogans "Down with the Regime of Kuchma and Yushchenko" and "All the Power to the Working People," Interfax reported on 26 February, quoting the KPU web site. The goal of the action is "to tell people the truth about what is going on in Ukraine, and to rouse them for an organized, conscious struggle for their human rights." The KPU declares its intention of correcting the "main mistake" of the "Ukraine Without Kuchma" rallies by expanding anti-regime protests to include wider social strata. KPU leader Petro Symonenko told the agency that the "ultrarightist nationalists," who actively participate in ongoing anti-Kuchma protests, "are destroying the idea of social justice and diverting the people from the understanding that [Ukraine's] economic reform has no prospects in essence." UKRAINIAN PREMIER TO SURVIVE BY FORMING 'COALITION CABINET'? =========================================================== Deputy parliamentary speaker Viktor Medvedchuk told journalists on 26 February that Premier Viktor Yushchenko will survive in his post only if the president, the parliament, and the government agree on forming a "coalition cabinet," Interfax reported. Medvedchuk noted that unless a coalition cabinet is formed under Yushchenko, "the reformist parliamentary majority will create a new coalition government with a new premier." Kyiv-based political analyst Mykola Tomenko said the same day that the parliament will "most likely" dismiss Yushchenko in April because of his "failure to fulfill the government program" that was approved by lawmakers a year ago. According to Tomenko, Yushchenko may be voted out jointly by the Communists--whose representative will subsequently head the legislature--and some currently pro-Kuchma caucuses which want Medvedchuk to head the government. ***********************************
