Ukraine's former Orange allies reach coalition deal

Ukrainian media today reported that the estranged Orange Revolution allies had reached a coalition agreement that will restore Yulia Tymoshenko as prime minister, ending nearly three months of political uncertainty.

The Kiev agreement was expected to be presented in parliament today, the Ukrainska Pravda website and NTN television reported. If formed, the new government would maintain Ukraine’s pro-Western, reformist course.

The parties were not commenting on the reports, but president Viktor Yushchenko’s office said he met the leaders of the three so-called Orange parties late yesterday for a round-table discussion.

Ukraine’s political life has been paralysed since the March parliamentary election ended without giving any one party enough votes to form a majority on its own.

The three parties that led the 2004 Orange Revolution mass protests against election fraud immediately began talks to reunite, but struggled to overcome deep hostility created by their earlier break-up. Yushchenko fired Tymoshenko from the prime minister’s job in September, and has seemed reluctant to see her return.

As negotiations hit new stumbling blocks last week, Yushchenko’s bloc announced it was also reaching out to the pro-Russian Party of Regions, which won the most votes in the election.

The Party of Regions, led by Yushchenko’s 2004 election rival, Viktor Yanukovych, turned up the pressure when it announced yesterday that it was ready to form a coalition on its own – relying on politicians defecting from other parties – if no agreement was reached by today.

Tymoshenko made no comment after her talks with Yushchenko yesterday, but her spokesman Vitaly Chepinoga declared that she was “satisfied and more convinced” that the Orange coalition would reunite.

Ukrainska Pravda reported that under the agreement, Tymoshenko’s bloc, which won more seats than two other coalition partners combined would name her as prime minister.

Yushchenko’s Our Ukraine party would get the parliamentary speaker’s job, and the Socialists would be given the vice-speaker’s post, Ukrainska Pravda claimed.