Government Delayed As Our Ukraine Faction Backs Poroshenko

This morning Our Ukraine Rada faction voted to nominate Petro Poroshenko as speaker of parliament, confirming a decision last week by the Our Ukraine party. The other coalition factions are thus obliged to support him. Parliament was unable to meet today due to a blockade of the speaker’s podium by the opposition, who are demanding parliamentary committee chairmanships and separate votes on the speaker and prime minister. Since parliament has no rule against blockades, the coalition parties are talking about holding their next meeting in another building. Meanwhile Yulia Tymoshenko said she now doesn’t expect to seat her cabinet until July 11. Concorde Capital: The opposition is testing the Orange coalition’s resolve, but we think the decision has been made. We think Tymoshenko will accept Poroshenko as the price of her premiership, but she will continue to insist that parliament confirm them both simultaneously.