The Svoboda Party has revived worries about its extremist views after party members boasted about tear-gassing participants at a human rights rally in Kyiv on Dec. 8.
The party, which campaigned as moderate nationalists to win more than two million votes and 37 seats in the 450-member parliament, has been criticized by Western leaders and media for the anti-Semitic statements of some of its members. Now it is drawing international criticism for its openly anti-gay stance and its embrace of violent tactics.
Svoboda’s actions also cast a shadow on its partners in the opposition, Batkivshchyna and Vitali Klitschko’s Ukrainian Democratic Alliance for Reforms, who have vowed to work together in the new parliament despite ideological differences.
Svoboda admitted their activists attacked gay community and human rights activists during a demonstration in central Kyiv on Dec. 8 to commemorate international Human Rights Day. More than just an admission, Svoboda officials expressed pride in the actions, which included spraying tear gas on peaceful activists. Police detained six people at the rally. One participant had his nose broken.
“Thanks to the five nationalists, the sabbath of 50 perverts was broken up,” boasted Svoboda on its official web page on Dec. 10. “Our activists pulled out banners with perverted slogans, after which the protesters used tear gas on them, but they received a decent rebuff. The fight broke out, then the police intruded,” the statement reads.
The police detained five Svoboda Party members on the spot – Onysya Garai, Sergiy Bondar, Ihor Berdennikov, and two other under-aged party activists whom Svoboda does not name. Garai is accused of hooliganism and resisting arrest. Aside from nationalists, police detained one gay activist.
But the party claims its members did not beat up gay demonstrators in two events that took place after the protest ended. But one of those attacked, Sergiy, who spoke to Kyiv Post on condition of anonymity because he fears for his life, said he and his friends were attacked after the demonstration when they left a cafe. He is now recovering at home with a broken nose.
Svoboda spokesperson Yuriy Syrotiuk first denied party involvement in the event when speaking to Kyiv Post on Dec. 10. But later on the same day the party’s official web page put up a statement to the contrary.
Syrotiuk added that Svoboda supports “traditional Ukrainian family values.”
Svoboda is known for its radical ideas and has been labeled an ultra-nationalist party. Oleg Tiahnybok, who heads the party, was kicked out of the Our Ukraine faction in parliament in 2004 for anti-Semitic statements. In February, party spokesman Syrotiuk said he was unhappy about black Ukrainian singer Gaitana representing Ukraine in the Eurovision song contest because she “is not an organic representative of the Ukrainian culture.”
Deputy head of Svoboda Ihor Miroshnychenko caused more criticism earlier in December when he called Mila Kunis, a Hollywood actress of Ukrainian descent, a “zhidovka,” a derogatory term for Jew in Ukrainian. “She is not Ukrainian, she is a Yid. She is proud of it, so star of David be with her,” wrote Miroshnychenko on his official Facebook profile.
Previously a marginal political force, the party raised eyebrows when it received more than 10 percent of the popular vote and 37 seats in parliament in the Oct. 28 vote.
Andreas Umland, a German academic at the Kyiv Mohyla Academy, says many of Svoboda’s supporters did not pay attention to their radicalism. “Radical parties like Svoboda always have a front stage which they present to the public, and the backstage where they mobilize their activists. And the back staged agenda is much more radical than the façade picture,” Umland says.
“They spoke about national sovereignty, independence, and were even pro-European. But the history of the party, its ideology and program has always been much more radical. They did not even hide it too much,” he added.
Svoboda’s political allies, the United Opposition led by Arseniy Yatsenyuk and the Ukrainian Democratic Alliance for Reforms, have shied away from criticizing Svoboda. Klitschko was one of the few Ukrainian politicians who supported the lesbian-gay-bisexual-transgender community, having said that “every person’s choice should be treated with respect and understanding.” He also said that he does not support “some of their [Svoboda’s] ideas which smell of right wing radicalism.” Klitschko’s remarks have resulted in a certain animosity between him and Tiahnybok.
Many voices outside of Ukraine have been less restrained. The European Parliament passed a resolution on Dec. 13, voicing concerns about the “rising nationalistic sentiment in Ukraine which led to the election of the Svoboda Party to the parliament of Ukraine.”
“The European Parliament recalls that racist, anti-Semitic and xenophobic views go against the European Union’s fundamental values and principles and it appeals to pro-democratic parties in the Ukrainian parliament not to associate with, endorse or form coalitions with this party.”
Meanwhile, back home the police charged those detained with hooliganism. Yevheniya Zakrevska, a lawyer with human rights organization No Borders, says Ukraine has no legislation banning discrimination based on sexual orientation.
“There is an article 161 of the criminal code which speaks of the violating person’s rights ‘because of their nationality, color of skin and other,’ but no discrimination of sexual orientation,” she said, adding she has not heard of police opening a case based on this article, as they prefer to “not spoil their statistics.”
Being openly gay in Ukraine is dangerous as members of the LGBT community are often attacked. On May 20, Svyatoslav Sheremet, leader of the Gay Forum of Ukraine, was attacked when the activists tried to organize Ukraine’s first gay pride parade in Kyiv.
Pictures of a group of men assumed to be neo-Nazis beating Sheremet circulated widely in major world media outlets. The incident drew attention to the problem of homophobia in Ukraine.
Ukraine’s legislature might soon make being gay even tougher. A draft law, which makes it illegal to talk about homosexuality in public and in the media, passed the first reading in parliament on Oct. 2, with 289 lawmakers voted in favor. The law foresees punishment of up to five years in jail and fines up to Hr 5,000, and was bashed by the Amnesty International, the European Union, the United Nations and human rights activists in Ukraine.
While attacks on LGBT activists are not rare, police hardly ever detain attackers. Sheremet’s May attackers were never found.
Among those few who protest against Svoboda’s radicals are the left wing activists and anti fascists. They held a protest in front of the parliament on the first day of its work, on Dec. 12, drawing approximately 200 people protesting against Svoboda. “Recent attack on the LGBT community is a sign that fascists, with silence from government, monopolize the streets, and abuse other people’s rights to protest,” says Oleksiy Bluminov, one of the organizers. He adds that Svoboda’s presence in Parliament legitimizes Nazism and extremism in Ukraine.
Experts say, while the attack on gay demonstration was a disturbing sign, the public will have to wait and see what happens next. “There is a chance they can transform under public pressure. This has happened to some radical parties in Europe over the last 80 years,” Umland said.
Kyiv Post staff writer Svitlana Tuchynska can be reached at [email protected]
