Ukraine tends towards democracy

The presidential elections have shown that there is genuine political competition and diversity of opinion in Ukraine, the daily Neue Zürcher Zeitung points out, saying this is the fruit of the Orange Revolution in 2004: "In the years following independence the spectre of a divided Ukraine split into an Eastern and a Western half was repeatedly conjured up. Even during the Orange Revolution the regional differences grew more pronounced. ... Today the danger of Ukraine being shattered by its regional differences seems to have been banished. The state has consolidated within its existing borders. The ethnic, social, cultural and linguistic differences force Ukrainian politicians to seek a democratic balance of interests. It is one of the major achievements of the Orange Revolution that the concept of a political nation of citizens not based on ethnic criteria has won the day."

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