Time is running out: the schedule of the 2006 parliamentary elections states that nominations of candidates must be submitted by Dec. 25. More than 50 party and inter-party forums have been held in Kyiv in the past month. The top five are UNP leader Yuriy Kostenko; honorary chairman of the Party of Free Peasants and Entrepreneurs, Ivan Pliushch; honorary president of the Obolon Company Oleksandr Slobodian; first deputy leader of the UNP, Ivan Zayets, and director of the Institute of Ethnography, Anna Skrypnyk. Kostenko also thinks that his Orange Revolution partners will side with the UNP in the Verkhovna Rada. Why are they not together today? Borys TARASIUK, leader of the Popular Movement of Ukraine (NRU) and Minister of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine, responds to this question.
“The other day you signed on behalf of the NRU an agreement on Independence Square about creating the Our Ukraine election bloc. What conditions for blocking does it provide? Have you agreed, say, on quotas in the overall list of bloc participants?”
“Yes. The participation of the Popular Movement of Ukraine in this bloc is logical because in 2001 the NRU, together with the Ukrainian People’s Party and the Reform and Order Party, initiated the founding of a bloc called Our Ukraine. This bloc became the most successful political association in Ukraine: in the 2002 elections it managed to accomplish what no other political force had in the previous decade — it got the upper hand over the Communist Party. That signaled the beginning of the decline of this party. As for the NRU’s further role in these processes and its position, we decided at our congress last February, i.e., after the victory of the Orange Revolution and the election of Viktor Yushchenko as president, that the next election would be no less important than the previous one and that we must go through it successfully. The Popular Movement of Ukraine encouraged the formation of a broad-based patriotic and democratic bloc that rested on the forces that brought Yushchenko to victory — in other words, all the political forces that are part of the People’s Strength coalition. Unfortunately, not all of them managed to stand the test of power. Today, the forces of the Orange Revolution are scattered, so to speak, but I think this is a temporary phenomenon. In due time, i.e., after the elections, I hope our political forces will rally together to form a majority in parliament and a new cabinet.”
“Do you intend to follow the example of the Tymoshenko Bloc and form a single megaparty after the elections?”
“That depends on the participants. As far as I know, none of the Our Ukraine founding parties would like to lose their self-identity. The Popular Movement of Ukraine made a statement to this effect at its congress on Feb. 18.
“As for the quotas, this is an extremely delicate matter for any political grouping. But we, the leaders of six parties, have managed to overcome our difficulties and reach a compromise that satisfies all the participants.”
“Why, instead of a single team, some half-dozen ‘Orange’ blocs and parties are going to the 2006 elections in ‘parallel courses’? Incidentally, did you receive any blocking offers from the PRP, Pora, the UNP, etc.?”
“You know, it is sad and deplorable that we are not together. I think this is a mistake of the Orange team, partly because the parts of a whole finally found themselves in different election coalitions, which led to reciprocal insults, partly because of excessive ambitions. But this is a fact of life, and I personally do not think one should make a tragedy out of this. The main thing is that these fragments of the Orange team should carry and assert the ideals of the Maidan during the election campaign. If we pass this test with flying colors, a test that is serious for each of the political forces, and unite again after the elections to form a majority and a new government, then I think it will show that we have learned certain lessons from this situation.”
“In other words, there are no fundamental differences among you — the same ‘ideals of the Maidan’ for everyone?”
“There are no fundamental differences and there cannot be any. There are differences in tactics. Sometimes, as I said before, the subjective, personal, factor can play a role.”
“Some experts are predicting that you can take one of the top five places in the bloc’s list. Can you confirm or deny this?”
“Each of the bloc’s constituent parties, including the Popular Movement of Ukraine, has its own list. But our joint work should be aimed at making a quality political product, namely, a high-profile list that will attract public attention not only by the well-known brand of Our Ukraine but also by the fact that behind this brand stands the name of Viktor Yushchenko.”
