Ukraine's nationalist party Svoboda has broken through as a radical force in politics with its success in the weekend's elections, with enough seats to shake-up the new parliament.
Accused by its critics of being an anti-Semitic, homophobic and racist extreme-right party, the actions of the Svoboda (Freedom) in the new Verkhovna Rada will be closely watched to see if it has found a new political maturity.
Svoboda won over 10 percent in Sunday's elections and is on course to win 37 places in the 450-seat parliament, a huge breakthrough for its leader Oleg Tyagnybok who won only 1.4 percent of the vote in 2010 presidential polls.
The more mainstream opposition parties of boxer Vitali Klitschko and jailed ex-premier Yulia Tymoshenko are expected to form an alliance in parliament with Svoboda against the ruling Regions Party of President Viktor Yanukovych.
But as Svoboda was celebrating its election success, Israel warned that it would be closely watching Tyagnybok's future comments.
"I have heard anti-Semite declarations from the mouth of the Svoboda leader," Israeli ambassador to Ukraine Reuven Din El told the weekly Dzerkalo Tzhnya, expressing concern about its possible alliance with the mainstream opposition.
"I hope that the tone will change after the elections."
Meanwhile, Russian pro-Kremlin lawmaker Sergei Markov described Svoboda in an interview with the Segodnya daily as a "neo-Nazi party which does not hide its anti-Semitism."
Tyagnybok, a lawyer and doctor by training, however insisted that while the party would stand up for Ukrainians the allegations of extremism were false. "We are nationalists but we are not Nazis," Tyagnybok told AFP.
"All these accusations of Nazism, Fascism or other fantasies dreamt up by our political opponents are just attempts to slander Svoboda."
"Our party will stick to its principles, it is consistent and ideological. People know what to expect from us and know we will not deceive them in parliament."

More pragmatic?

The success of the party has sent a shock wave through Ukraine, already split between the Ukrainian-speaking west that regards itself as part of central Europe and the Russian-speaking east that looks more towards Moscow.
Svoboda strongly emphasises Ukraine's distinct cultural identity, regards the Soviet rule as an occupation of Ukrainian territory, scorns the Kremlin and plays up the importance of Ukrainian over Russian.
A pillar of the party's ideology is the glorification of the Ukrainian Insurgent Army (UPA) which fought against Soviet forces in World War II and whose offshoots continued anti-Soviet resistance right up into the 1950s.
Tyagnybok in 2004 notoriously eulogised the struggle of UPA against the "Russkies, the Germans, the Yids and other low-life."
The party also organised a march against the Hassidic Jews who arrive in the thousands for a pilgrimage every year in the city of Uman and opposed a singer of African origin representing Ukraine in this year's Eurovision Song Contest.
But Tyagnybok managed in the elections to expand Svoboda's support from its
nationalist western strongholds of the Lviv, Ivano-Frankivsk and Ternopil
regions towards more central areas including most notably Kiev.
Many commentators have said its success was due to many voters who are not nationalists voting for Svoboda, but who see it as the engine of resistance against Yanukovych's increasingly controversial rule.
Olexiy Garan of the Kiev Mogyla School of Political Analysis predicted that Svoboda will be "very radical" in criticising the authorities on Ukraine's declining economic and social situation.
He said the presidency would be happy to provoke clashes between Svoboda activists and those from its arch-foes the Communist Party -- who also did well in the elections and came fourth -- in order to appear a stabilising force.
"Without doubt there are hotheads in Svoboda who are easy to provoke. But Tyagnybok has become more pragmatic, constructive and balanced than he was in 2004," he said.