An American [for the sake of argument] tourist got lost whilst driving around Ireland on a holiday. He pulls up and asks an old local: "Excuse me, can you tell me how I get to Ballygurgle?" The local has a good think, and replies: "You, know what? If I were you...I wouldn't be starting from here."
The same advice may be given to the NSNU and other Orange parties in the parliamentary election campaign. The difficulties and realities faced by Ukrainians are well described in an article in 'National Review'.
Some sensible talk from PM Yekhanurov yesterday in an interview [exerpts on 'ProEuropa'] for leading Polish newspaper 'Gazeta Wyborcza'. He considers the BYuT leadership closer to NSNU than those of PR. "Tymoshenko's people are democrats, like us. We fought together for a new and better Ukraine - this is why they are closer. We have shared values - a striving for democracy, and a belief that elections should be honest - a Western orientation. Where we differ [with BYuT] is our approach to the question of private ownership [of property].
He describes Yanukovych's Party of Regions as containing extremely wealthy people who made fortunes under Kuchma, and who want to gain power again.
He denied that any clandestine agreements or deals have been made with any political opponents: "During elections there are no friends - it's every man for himself." After the elections though, "everything is possible." He calls BYuT a 'nationalcommunist' bloc who wants to redistribute everything that had been privatized in recent years. "This program of privatization forced through by Tymoshenko caused great harm to Ukraine - investors stopped coming to us.."
He did go on to say though, that after the elections he hoped NSNU would be able to find some kind of agreement with BYuT.
So it seems the chances of NSNU-BYuT coalition before polling day are receeding. Yulia T said as much today in Chernihiv.
But after the elections?
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