Poroshenko ready for referendum on Ukraine’s state system

Maidan Square in Kiev, Ukraine

(Interfax – April 6, 2015)

Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko said he is ready to hold a referendum regarding Ukraine’s state system.

“I am ready to launch a referendum on the issue of the state system, if you see a need for that,” Poroshenko said at a meeting of the constitutional commission in Kiev on Monday.
Poroshenko earlier said he is ready to hold a referendum regarding the state system of Ukraine, but said that “almost 90 percent” of the population oppose federalization and that Ukraine will not agree to any form of pressure on this issue.

Poroshenko said the idea of federalization is “like an infection, like a biological weapon that they are trying to force on Ukraine from abroad.”

“They are trying to use it to hurt Ukraine and destroy our unity because it’s the only model that can now be used to destroy the unity that Ukraine is demonstrating in the war,” Poroshenko said.

Poroshenko said he is convinced that the people of Ukraine will not let that happen. “At first, when they hoped that federalization would work, they had absolutely different plans. When Ukraine united, they began the aggression against us and went to war with us, trying to cultivate federalization with iron and blood. I will not let that happen, the people of Ukraine will not let that happen,” he said.

Meanwhile, Ukrainian President said that Ukrainian will remain the only state language in the country. “I would like to remind you so that everyone remembers this as a prayer: the Ukrainian language is and will remain the only state language of Ukraine,” he said.

“Some one and a half years ago, society was evenly divided on the issue of one or two state languages. Now over three-quarters of Ukrainian people are firmly convinced that there should be one language and that it is the backbone that holds the nation together,” Poroshenko said.

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