Explain Ukrainian politics to me

[Zuza]

I'm not sure "orange" parties tend to be more right-wing economically and I wouldn't say Opposition Bloc is "socially liberal" (even if they are somehow, by some metrics, happen to be more socially liberal than others, "social liberalism" means nothing to Ukrainian voters, most of American social issues such as abortion don't exist or barely exist in Ukraine). Although in the case of Freedom, I think, label "economically left-wing" can be applied indeed, they are more or less regularly described in this way and call themselves "social nationalists".

Most of Ukrainian parties seem to be populist personal vehicles. Typically, their programs are less relevant than persons of their leaders. Though different leaders appeal to different demographics: firstly there is still a well-known geographical cleavage, secondly, if we speak about the differences between "orange" parties, Radical Party and Fatherland (read: Lyashko and Tymoshenko) electorate is more agrarian and less educated while Self-Reliance (and, I presume, Saakashvili's party) is more popular among urban middle-class voters.

By the way, the most recent poll shows a party named For life, led by Jewish businessman Rabinovych (2014 presidential candidate, though I wouldn't call him a serious candidate and before this he was virtually unknown), at the 3rd place with 11.8 %. It seems to be another "blue" ("South-Eastern", relatively pro-Russian etc.) party. I can only guess, who and why votes for it, apparently South-Easterners disaffected with both the ruling coalition and Opposition Bloc.

[Zuza]

Orange parties are definitely more free market. Both Poroshenko Bloc and Fatherland are in the European People's Party.

It's possible that if Party of Regions had any European affiliation, it would join EPP as well. Also, not all EPP members are very pro-market, some are centrist. By the way, this is 2014 Party of Regions economic program (from Wikipedia):

You must be logged in to read this quote.

Though I do not insist that "blue" parties are more economically right-wing. It's even very likely they are, on average, more economically left-wing (especially if you count Communist Party). What I say is that both "blue" and "orange" political camps include parties and politicians with very different stances on economy and these stances can change very significantly over time (depending, for example, on whether this party is in government or in opposition), so I would avoid making any generalizations.

[Zuza]

To be fair, without "independents" PoR and CPU already had together considerably more seats than "orange" parties (217 vs 178) thanks to single-member constituencies. But yes, majority of "independents" joined PoR soon after the election.