Despite the ouster of elected Ukrainian President Yanukovych and his replacement by interim President Oleksandr Turchinov, the installation of a new pro-West government in the Ukraine is very much a work in progress.
Initially promising a deal by today, the “deadline” has been pushed back to Thursday as the opposition parties which are supposed to form the new government battle over key issues.
The three opposition parties are at odds over much of their policy, and are all hoping to take the issue to the protesters in the streets to try to cement themselves as the legitimate “voice” of the protest.
Ukraine has five major political parties: the ruling Party of Regions, which dominates the Russian-speaking parts of the country, is being forced out after the protests in anticipation of new elections.
The three parties planning an “interim” government are Fatherland, the party of Turchinov and Yulia Tymoshenko, the Democratic Alliance Party of boxer Vitaly Klitschko, and the nationalist Freedom Party. The fifth party, the Communist Party, is not allied with either the outgoing or incoming governments, and is the smallest of the five.
The Fatherland Party is the largest of the incoming parties, though Klitschko’s alliance is seen as more popular among protesters. Either way, they are supposed to simply hold power until May 25, when an election will install a new government, though given the current chaos it remains to be seen how much of an election will actually take place.
This has disaster written all over it.