“Orange Coalition” Officially Formed in Ukraine Parliament

It took longer than some expected, but the formal document creating a democratic coalition between President Viktor Yushchenko’s Our Ukraine People’s Self Defense Bloc and the Yulia Tymoshenko Bloc finally received enough signatures on Thursday, November 29.

On Wednesday, Yushchenko held talks with Our Ukraine members that previously refused to sign the document. As a result of those meetings, the document now contains 227 signatures, one more than needed to form a parliamentary majority. It should be noted that the coalition blocs received enough votes in the September parliamentary election to gain a combined 228 seats - one member of Our Ukraine still did not sign the agreement.

Parliament has 30 days from today to create a new government. The next major decision should be the selection of the new Speaker of the Verkhovna Rada. No agreement has been reached, but Our Ukraine supports current Foreign Minister, Aresniy Yatsenyuk.

After the selection of a speaker, the next move will probably be the nomination of a new Prime Minister. Yulia Tymoshenko looks to be the favorite, but don’t be surprised by more disagreements and days of discussions.

The next scheduled session of Parliament is Tuesday, December 4.