Ukraine: Thoughts on Yushchenko’s Bloc · Global Voices
Veronica Khokhlova

It's been nearly two months since the Sept. 30 snap parliamentary election in Ukraine, and although there are plenty of “democratic coalition” promises and hopes in the air, it has yet to materialize. Or not.
President Victor Yushchenko's Our Ukraine-People's Self-Defense Bloc (NUNS) and that of his Orange Revolution ally Yulia Tymoshenko have a slim parliamentary majority; pledging to form a government together had been a significant part of their campaigns this past fall. On Friday, however, eight newly-elected lawmakers from NUNS failed to sign a coalition agreement. Prime minister Victor Yanukovych, who has already surrendered his powers, hopes to join the coalition with NUNS, too – and if that happens, the coalition would be known as “broad” rather than “democratic.” Obviously, Yulia Tymoshenko is opposed to this.
Here is what Ukrainian journalist Andrei Smirnov wrote (RUS) about the possible future of NUNS on his blog at Korrespondent.net on Nov. 26:
It's rainy and slushy outside, and the New Year's isn't here yet, so let's talk about politics a little. About the true [Ukrainian] politics – about NUNS. A lot depends on them now, but they aren't moving anywhere (as always). And it's perfectly logical – the bloc consists of small parties, and each one denies itself (because they can't afford to get into the [parliament] on their own) – and denies the bloc, because, having already gotten into the [parliament], they tend to exaggerate their role in the collective success. It is all but impossible to carry out any constructive work with such an inner duality.
Below are a few comments to this post:
Alexandr_1100:
How do you this this will end?
andrey-smirnov:
If they don't create a single party, they'll become irrelevant.
Topor:
On the one hand, it's all very good. It's so much better than what we are now seeing in Russia […].
But here's what I'm afraid of: that the country would get tired of all this before it all grows civilized, and that the country would want something simple and easy to understand. “A strong hand.” “Order.” And all that. People at NUNS can't agree about small things and risk losing something bigger. We've seen this happen before, a thousand times.
[…]
Gm:
Topor, and maybe let them (NUNS) lose their “power”? What do they need it for when they are doing everything to avoid working for Ukraine :)