By Roman Onyshkevych, The Day
The new Ukrainian Parliament will have to do without Stepan Khmara, the firebrand nationalist and leader of the Ukrainian Conservative Republican Party. Many an analyst predicted he would lose to Mykhailo Kosiv, but the score (almost 1:2 in Rukh's favor) was perhaps one of the biggest surprises in Lviv's electorates.
There were several reasons. Primarily, March 29 showed that even the conservative Galicians - or Halychany - could back down at times. The National Front's debacle, agony of the Fewer Words Bloc, and almost completely ignoring the Ukrainian National Assembly were evidence that the Lviv natives were moving from Right to Center.
Another reason for Khmara's defeat was his own conduct. Galician voters were naturally more concerned about the future, tired of constant digressions in history. Mr. Khmara did not offer much in terms of new and rational concepts. Instead, he concentrated on detecting Hasidic Jews in the President's entourage and fighting militia corruption.
Finally, no one knows for sure, but it is just possible that Yukhym Zvyahilsky's campaigning for him did this "lone wolf" a bad turn. Sure, Mr. Zvyahilsky was quite sincere, but he just might have overestimated his impact on western Ukrainians, many of whom do not know much about modern politicking but well remember the "cheating Premier" stealing aviation fuel.
And yet it would be very wrong to consider all this as the beginning of Mr. Khmara's political end. True, there is the problem of giving vent to his ambitions and temperament, but it would take a very naive person to assume that the fiasco of the UCRP leader means its imminent demise. Just as it would serve little purpose trying to view this party as one created by Khmara for himself rather than Ukrainian politics.
Photo by Valery Myloserdov, The Day:
The people's tribune did not become the people's choice
