Just a day after he released details of his new structure of government the Prime Minister, Koruin Gruaman, is facing calls to resign as thousands of protesters took to the streets of the country’s biggest city. The protest, called for by Gal pressure group ‘Freedom Front’ was organised in response to what organisers have called a ‘betrayal’ of Polascianan ‘culture’ by the Prime Minister. Unofficial figures suggest that around three thousand protesters took the streets of Arvi just 24 hours after Prime Minister Gruaman’s statement. But the deputy of the Union Party leader Gennadiy Artamova, Lazar Ulanov, said the protests did nothing to promote Gal values. He said that his party was working ‘constructively’ with the government, not seeking to destabilise the political establishment ‘unlike the small minority.’ Mr Ulanov said that while the Prime Minister had ‘mistakes to answer for’ he was not wanting to see ethnic tensions. Gruaman is under pressure after replacing two of his executive team with two non-Gals from the United Nationalist Democrats.
Tensions between the three main ethnic groups in Polasciana have not been heightened in the public eye for many years. Historian Josef Cole suggested that since 1995 such differences were ‘disguised’ by a ‘battle of political ideals.’ Mr Cole, who lectures at the University College in Arvi, said that the city held deep divisions in its past which marked the location of the former headquarters of the Polamar Government, which was formed as a purely Gal authority. He attributed the organisers decision to hold the protest in Arvi as one of historical context. Tymur Rubin, the leader of the third party which has joined Gruaman’s Centrists in government urged the protesters to ‘have their say and go home’ – he said in a statement this afternoon that the nation would be ‘outraged’ by the [Freedom] Front’s ‘attack’ on his colleagues based on their family background. He added that while Ms Kuhn and Mr Moreno who joined him in government were of non-Gal backgrounds, they still represented every Polascianan – ‘united, together.’ Mr Rubin, a Gal himself, represents the largely mixed-ethnicity region of Turov in Kamchetka. Prime Minister Gruaman echoed the UND leader’s comments and said that a new ‘constructive partnership’ in government would not be ‘broken by the minority.’
But the Prime Minister’s former deputy who walked out of government yesterday released a brash statement aimed at his former boss. Alexei Sukhorukov who is a member of the lower-house of parliament representing Amar, the state in which Arvi is the capital, said that the Prime Minister had ‘lost the confidence of the country and of his party.’ He suggested that Gruaman was ‘playing a political game’ instead of focusing on his role as Prime Minister. Sukhorukov who was closely allied with Communications and Media Minister Krill Serbin in government said he resigned because he could no longer support a Centrist government that did not have ‘centrist aims’ at its heart. While he distanced himself from today’s protests, the former Deputy Prime Minister said that the unpopularity of Gruaman himself could no longer ‘get in the way’ of ‘progressive politics’ and he called on the Prime Minister to resign ‘as soon as possible’.
Authorities in Arvi said they would not allow protesters ‘free reign’ of the city – and eye witnesses in the city have suggested that the police forces are allowing little access to the city this evening. A spokesperson for the Freedom Front group said that the government was ‘clamping down on freedom’ and that many of their members had been ‘physically assaulted or arrested’ by the security services. The Government responded by saying that it had a ‘duty’ to protect those citizens living peacefully within the city centre.
