During a recent meeting with the regional media President Yushchenko stated that he would like to see new faces in Our Ukraine’s leadership. “But this can only be the inner competence of the party congress,” he said.
So far, the three-week break taken by Our Ukraine does not appear to be productive. True, one tendency has already been spotted. Borys Bezpaly, citing the opinion of his associates, expressed an idea that has long been in the air: Victor Yushchenko, the party’s honored head, could become the party’s real head. (For the sake of fairness, credit for this idea goes to Mykola Katerynchuk.) The most interesting thing is that this proposal was supported not only by the majority of regional organizations, but also the “dear friends.”
Thus, the head of the Kyiv branch of Our Ukraine, MP Mykola Martynenko, suggested via the press that the OU should not elect a party head. “Since the party’s honorary head, Victor Yushchenko, filled his status as leader with real meaning, I suggest a small unconventional step — not to elect a council head. I consider that under these conditions any “intermediary” between the leader and the party is irrelevant.”
Martynenko called the attempts to put “Varangians” at its head “without prospects and even dangerous” for the party’s unity. “This is characteristic of a feudal society and incompatible with democratic principles. The attempts to foist ‘strangers’ on the party will cause indignation in its milieu and will negatively reflect on the party’s basic structures — the Verkhovna Rada and local fractions,” Martynenko says.
It looks as though they want to force Yushchenko to make a choice: either he leaves the party and Our Ukraine becomes an autonomous political subject on which Yushchenko will not have any influence, or he becomes a real leader of this party structure. This way he will bear direct responsibility for it, not just symbolic.
We asked The Day’s political experts why Our Ukraine is clinging to Yushchenko so desperately. Who needs whom: Yushchenko the party or vice versa? Can the president’s protege guide Our Ukraine out of the crisis?
Andrii YERMOLAIEV, director of the Sophia Social Research Center:
One should understand that today’s discussions in Our Ukraine are not connected with current problems but with the struggle for prospects. It seems to me that the president has made one systemic mistake. After his decision to restore his influence on the party, to take the party mechanism into his hands, he introduced a very long hiatus. Three weeks is a wonderful present for the party nomenklatura and the opposition-minded party members.
As for the appeal to the president to head the party in person, I consider this a fine political technology trick, intended for the public, which appears to be more of an ultimatum than a proposal. After all, party members clearly understand that the president is above all the head of state. He cannot belong to a party, but in view of his activity and his policies, he has to ensure equilibrium. He must orient himself on tolerance and cooperation with different political forces. A rigid connection to the party may put the president in a difficult situation. After all, the answer is programmed — the president will hardly agree to lead the party directly. Such an ultimatum means that the party members are rejecting the scenario of inviting the president’s new proteges.
I think that the second stage will be very difficult for the president. I do not reject the idea that some Our Ukraine members will instigate a scandal with two possible versions of developing events: they will either place the president in a difficult situation, forcing him to make unfavorable decisions, or will obtain grounds for slamming the door and join the new opposition that is being formed.
Therefore, the actions of Our Ukraine’s political elite have all the features of a political game aimed at playing a trick on the president. After recovering from the shock after the first stage of the meeting, the party nomenklatura is striking a blow in response in this covert form.
Ihor LOSIEV, assistant professor of the Culturology Department of National University Kyiv-Mohyla Academy:
What is Our Ukraine these days? In the general scope, this is an absolutely bankrupt political project that has no chances in the future elections. This is why Our Ukraine needs Victor Yushchenko much more than he needs Our Ukraine. Why would the president need it? Probably so that he won’t be absolutely alone in parliament, in order to exert at least a touch of influence on the Party of Regions, to bluff politically in parliament. That is why he still needs it. Does Yushchenko need to head Our Ukraine? He can manipulate it in general, without heading it officially. As for Yatseniuk, then metaphorically speaking, Our Ukraine is a many-headed “hydra” with extremely diverse interests. The first thing is to chop off the hydra’s head. Will Yatseniuk manage to do this? I don’t know. It is quite possible that the opposite will happen. The many-headed hydra will eat Yatseniuk.
Victoria PODHORNA, political scientist:
Victor Yushchenko doesn’t intend to head the party, but he intends to retain control over it. But this is impossible if the leadership structure that has already formed in the party is retained. These are people who today are called business groups, oligarchs, or “dear friends.” The president already distanced himself from them in 2005 and is now trying to keep his distance as much as possible.
Does Yushchenko himself bear responsibility for the party’s defeat? I think the party sank itself. If the leadership consists exclusively of businessmen, such a structure cannot be called a party. They have more interests than ideas — any voter understands this. Yushchenko has nothing to do with this. But the fact that he didn’t always intervene skillfully in the process is another question.
If you remember, before the elections there was a congress at which the president made an absolutely concrete attempt to release the party from the “dear friends.” He said: don’t include them in the list. Did they listen to the president? No. The “dear friends” arranged a hullabaloo at the congress and said that they would stay because this is our party. Right, this is your party — and you have the result that you have.
As for Yatseniuk, I think the president’s position is wrong. He simply sees a new face. Yatseniuk is really a professional manager. But he is not a politician, and I think he won’t be one for a long time. I think that if there is no scenario prepared in advance at the congress, we’ll see who the real leader of the party is.
Kost BONDARENKO, political scientist:
All sociological data indicate that Our Ukraine’s rating is over 6 percent. There is another point. Our Ukraine has practically no influence on the political situation in the country. Each governor who is a member of Our Ukraine is a self-sufficient manager, a self-sufficient leader. And, correspondingly, the party connection for him is nothing more than a masquerade behind the principle of “my own is a stranger.” The third point is that the party has shown it is incapable of constructing positive messages, and all year it was dealing with the absurd and merciless negotiation process.
Only one thing can be said here: the sooner the president stands above the process and the sooner he refuses the party connection, the more he will win. The president should not be a party leader but a kind of father of the nation, the guarantor of democratic processes. True, the president’s popularity is very low now, but you know when a person is sinking and has a stone tied to his legs, the question arises: will the person rise to the surface if the stone continues to pull him to the bottom? Our Ukraine is the stone that is “helping” the president to sink.
As a matter of fact, the president’s drop in ratings did not happen after he proposed the post of prime minister to Yanukovych. The drop started at the very moment when he surrounded himself with the company of “dear friends.” It was they who helped the president’s rating to fall.
Will Yatseniuk manage to do anything with Our Ukraine? This is a case of my getting married without my being there. A question comes to mind: is there a declaration by Yatseniuk concerning the party membership? I think that Yatseniuk will hardly head the party. But even if he does, this would be an attempt to transfuse fresh blood into a political organism that is in a comatose state along with the hope that maybe somehow it will survive.
