Democrats fail

Kiev, Ukraine

Ukraine’s pro-democracy parties managed to hold their governing coalition together for just one day, before it dissolved amid bitter sniping this week. It took three months after the parliamentary elections for the parties that led the 2004 Orange Revolution to reach a coalition agreement. Julia Tymoshenko of the Fatherland Party was to be prime minister, while a member of President Viktor Yushchenko’s Our Ukraine Party was to be parliamentary speaker. But after the third party in the coalition, the Socialists, wrested the speakership for one of their own, the deal fell apart amid accusations of treason and betrayal. Now, the pro-Russian and communist parties have a chance to form a government.