Talks in Ukraine drag on

Different messages last week about the coalition talks in Ukraine. Every other day a rumour appears somewhere around the world, but often in Russia, that the President’s “Our Ukraine” party engaged in final talks with his 2004 rival’s “Party of the Regions”.

Meanwhile PM wannabe Yuliya Tymoshenko keeps on delaying the breaking news about a possible continuation of the Orange Coalition that came to power after a reshuffle in parliament following the 2004 Orange Revolution.

Last few weeks could hardly be called productive, seeing Easter, The Chernobyl commemoration, Labour Day and Victory Day lead to many non-working days. Even news sites seem to have been on leave. Or does silence mean that negotiations are going well?

The duration of the negotiations may be an indicator for the sure steps Ukraine is taking towards democracy. In that sense the difficult talks between the Bloc Yuliya Tymoshenko, Our Ukraine and the Ukrainian Socialist Party could be interpreted as hopeful.

The Ukrainians have been negotiating for nearly 7 weeks following the elections in March. In Netherlands the average coalition negotiations take 72 days. But nothing is sure in Ukraine. Don’t be surprised to see Yanukovych present a new coalition soon!