At the meeting of the community of the Ukrainian Catholic University (UCU) in Lviv on March 16, 2010, the situation regarding the appointment of Dmytro Tabachnyk as the Minister of Education and Science of Ukraine was discussed.
Stressing the complete inconsistency between the previous actions and words of Mr. Tabachnyk and his current post, the UCU's rector's office expressed concern over the appointment of such a person as the Minister of Education and Science of Ukraine and a demand to revise the decision on his appointment as soon as possible and to "appoint to this post a professional education worker, patriot of the state, and a person of untarnished moral image."
The address reads in particular: "Dmytro Tabachnyk has for a continuous time resorted to openly and repeatedly voicing disrespect for the Ukrainian intellectuals and the Ukrainian language and culture, stirring up hatred between different regions of Ukraine, defending the human-hating Stalinist regime, which has been condemned along with the Nazi regime by the Parliamentary Assembly of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, and doubting the sacrifices of the Ukrainian nation under the Soviet regime.
The current statement of Dmytro Tabachnyk that he will be governed in his actions as the minister not by his pre-election statements but solely by the instructions of the leaders of the state cannot sustain any criticism for it was his anti-Ukrainian position during his work as the Vice Prime Minister on Humanitarian Issues in the government of Viktor Yanukovych that in 2006 triggered mass protests by five sessions of the regional councils and a considerable part of the Ukrainian society.
Myroslav Marynovych informed the audience of various protests already published by the media in this regard, particularly the address of the president of the Kyiv Mohyla National Academy, Serhii Kvit, who also called public protest against the appointment of Dmytro Tabachnyk.
According to the press service of UCU, various forms of civil activity were discussed. A representative of the Student Council of UCU, Roman Hrybovskyi, informed the audience about a protest action to be held tomorrow by students of the Lviv higher educational institutions in front of the Lviv Regional Council to support its deputies who will consider an address to the leadership of the state with a demand to dismiss the newly appointed minister. The Ivano-Frankivsk Region has already published a similar address and the Ternopil Region is to do so.