The Chancellor and the French President have called on Ukraine’s President to continue his reform course energetically, said federal government spokesperson Steffen Seibert, reporting on a telephone conference. They spoke as a new Prime Minister was elected in Ukraine.
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At the government press conference, government spokesperson Steffen Seibert announced that Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President François Hollande had spoken on Friday morning by telephone with the Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko.
The reason for their conversation was the election of Volodymyr Groysman as Ukraine’s new Prime Minister, and the forming of a new Cabinet in Kyiv one day earlier. The Chancellor and the French President pledged the new government their support.
"The Chancellor and the President have called on the Ukrainian President to continue to pursue his reform course energetically, and to speed up this process, in order to modernise the country, to fight corruption and to reform the judiciary," said Steffen Seibert.
On 14 April, the Verkhovna Rada, or Ukrainian parliament, elected Volodymyr Groysman, the parliamentary speaker to the post of Prime Minister. He will take over from Arseniy Yatsenyuk, who first headed the transitional government in the wake of the Maidan protests. He was confirmed in office in the parliamentary elections held in February 2014. His government had been faltering for some months prior to his resignation.
In the telephone conversation the Chancellor and the French President also advocated the further implementation of the Minsk agreements, reported Steffen Seibert. The focus must be on securing the ceasefire and on making progress on the legislation needed so that elections can be held in the Donbass region.
"Germany and France will continue to stand by Ukraine both on a bilateral level and within the framework of the Normandy group," assured the government spokesperson. The Chancellor has written to the new head of government to congratulate him, said Steffen Seibert.