Insults were traded over microphones and there was at least one bloodied nose after Speaker Oleksandr Moroz announced the formation of a new "anti-crisis" coalition - the second since the March 26 elections - comprising the pro-Russia Party of Regions, the Communists and his Socialist Party.
Former premier Yulia Tymoshenko, who had been expected to return to the prime minister's chair in an alliance with pro-presidential Our Ukraine and the Socialists before Moroz's party pulled out in a controversial deal that saw him installed as speaker, looked on stone-faced as the pushing and shoving paralyzed the chamber.
Party of Regions leader Viktor Yanukovych saw his name put forward for the premiership instead, which could see him return to the position he occupied in 2002-2004 before the "orange revolution" swept West-looking Viktor Yushchenko to power.
And with crowds of supporters massed outside the parliamentary building, Yanukovych urged the president, who said Monday any new coalition should pursue the policies he had advocated when he was elected, to make his position clear.
"If we hear the head of state's position, we will understand what is happening," he said during a forced parliamentary adjournment. "Either this is a preplanned scenario and the president will not tolerate any political force but his own or we will see that the current confrontation in parliament can still be overcome."
The new coalition leader said his party had announced it was willing to join a broad coalition, which some members of his parliamentary faction suggested could involve Our Ukraine members.
"It is not our fault that this proposal was rejected," he said.
But he also said that the party still harbored hopes on this score, which was why it was important that the president should make his views known.
However, a senior member of the pro-presidential Our Ukraine seemed unlikely to take up any "grand coalition" offer and instead said his party and the Yulia Tymoshenko Bloc could run on a joint ticket in a new election.
"I think in the event of early elections, a two-party system will emerge, and I do not rule out that if the decision [to call new parliamentary elections] is made, Our Ukraine and the Yulia Tymoshenko Bloc will start talks," said Petro Poroshenko, who was head of the influential National Security Council under Yushchenko until he resigned after eight months.
And a small pro-Russia bloc joined in the calls for new elections, but said a presidential poll should also be held.
"Early presidential and parliamentary elections are a way to cleanse the authorities and save Ukraine," said the Natalia Vitrenko's People's Opposition Bloc, which could not take up seats in parliament after the elections because it failed to win the 3% of the vote needed.
The bloc's press service said that Ukraine would face destabilization, disturbances and uprisings - even a civil war - if parliament and the president failed to express the people's will.
