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Ukraine's ruling coalition collapses

Xinhua, February 18, 2016 Adjust font size:

Ukraine's ruling coalition collapsed on Thursday after the departure of Samopomich Party.

Without Samopomich, the coalition is 11 seats short of a majority in the 450-seat parliament.

"The leadership of the Samopomich Party has decided it impossible for us to remain in alliance with political forces that participated in the oligarchic coup in Parliament," the party said in a statement, referring to what it called "collusion" between the country's top authorities and the oligarchs in a parliamentary vote on a no-confidence motion against the government on Tuesday.

One day after the voting, the 19-seat-strong Fatherland Party led by former Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko announced its withdrawal from the ruling coalition.

Under the Ukrainian Constitution, Prime Minister Arseny Yatsenyuk has 30 days to form a new coalition. There will be early elections should he fail.

Yatsenyuk said Wednesday that he was in talks with several political forces. Endi