Yushchenko Pushes Our Ukraine to Join Coalition.

President Viktor Yushchenko plans to meet today with the six leaders of his Our Ukraine bloc in an effort to persuade the bloc to join the majority coalition, according to the president’s chief of staff. Yushchenko’s intervention comes as talks between Our Ukraine and the two main parties in the current coalition, Regions and the Socialists, have bogged down amid disputes over whether Our Ukraine will get additional Cabinet seats and whether the Communist Party will be expelled from the coalition. Tom Warner: Most of the six Our Ukraine bloc leaders favor joining the coalition, but it would be very difficult to negotiate a compromise that would get support from a majority of Our Ukraine’s 80 MPs. Regardless of whether or not Our Ukraine formally joins the coalition, Yushchenko’s allies will keep their seats in the Cabinet as long as the alliance holds between the president and the dominant Regions party. Regardless of whether the Communists are formally in or out of the coalition, they will continue to be de facto Regions party supporters.