Ukrainian Political Parties
I have been trying to learn more about the political parties in the country today, but have to admit defeat because they don’t seem to track with the Western model of what a political party is.
I’m led to believe that the parties coalesce around personalities rather than policies. The parties don’t really have platforms, and you are working with the statements of the leaders to figure out where they may go on an issue.
The Party of Regions is pro-Russian, and Fatherland is pro-European, but that is about as close as you get to a statement of their objectives.
The Freedom Party, Svoboda, is being portrayed as neo-Nazi in the Western media, and may well be, but you would need Ukrainian speaking reporters on the ground to actually know that, and I doubt many Western media outlets have those reporters.
The Party of Regions, to which Victor Yanukovich belonged, has the most seats in parliament, just over 130, but ‘None of the Above’ is the second largest group with almost 120 seats. With 447 seats in parliament, any government will have to be a coalition. [Note that the numbers in any party can change overnight, as deputies can change parties at will.]
This is definitely not politics as we know it.
