Yulia Tymoshenko
EU-Ukraine relations
Gas disputes
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Georgiy Gongadze
Ukrainian vs. Russian language
Nationalist Svoboda scores election victories in western Ukraine
Nov. 11, 2010, 11:26 p.m. | Politics — by Natalia A. Feduschak
LVIV, Ukraine – The answer to why the pro-nationalist Svoboda party took Ukraine’s three western oblasts in the Oct. 31 local elections was on full display in an exchange that took place between two well-known actors on a national talk show a few days after the vote.
Aleksei Panin of Russia told an increasingly agitated studio audience that he saw no difference among Ukrainians, Russian and Belarusians. He asked why children were forced to study Ukrainian in the largely Russian-speaking Crimea. Panin then questioned the 1954 decree that transferred possession of the peninsula from Russia to Ukraine, indicating it was just “a piece of paper.”
Bohdan Beniuk, an honored Ukrainian actor who is also Svoboda’s co-head, then took the microphone. Calling his theatrical colleague a “beautiful Russian nationalist…who loves his country” Beniuk asked a question that resonated with the audience: “Why don’t I have the right to be a Ukrainian nationalist?”
That statement summed up the feeling of many Svoboda supporters and residents in western Ukraine who have distressingly watched the pro-Russian Party of Regions increasingly assault their country’s language, culture, history and even territorial integrity since taking power earlier this year.
Yet equally unhappy with the infighting of the democratic opposition parties that used to represent them, voters here have called for new leaders who would stand up for their rights and challenge the kind of attitudes displayed by individuals like Panin, whether it be at home or abroad.
“It’s a reaction to Russian chauvinism,” and the current policies of the Regions Party, said Taras Vozniak, a Lviv-based political observer and editor-in-chief of the independent Ji magazine, said of Svoboda’s solid electoral showing.
Once considered a nationalist fringe group, Svoboda has stepped in to fill a perceptible void. The party has vowed to keep Ukrainian as the only state language, promised to rid the country of officials like education and science minister Dmytro Tabachnyk, who has maligned western Ukrainians by saying they really aren’t Ukrainian, and to defend the country’s sovereignty.
“This leadership is leading us to blood and civil war,” if it continues with its current anti-Ukrainian policies, Oleh Tiahnybok, Svodoba’s party leader, warned on the same show.
Nationwide, Svoboda took 5.2 percent of the Oct. 31 vote, a result that would win it a place in Ukraine’s parliament if elections were held today.
The party now has a majority in the Lviv city council, the largest faction in the Lviv, Ivano-Frankivsk and Ternopil regional councils, as well as the largest factions in the Ternopil and Ivano-Frankivsk city councils.
Ternopil held regional elections in 2009, which was when Svoboda signaled its rise as a regional political player.
Olha Palaciuk from Ternopil said she voted for Svoboda because she wanted to give young people a chance at governance. “Who else could I vote for?” she asked.
To a great extent, however, the Party of Regions has helped give rise to Svoboda through its policies, analysts and politicians said.
Andriy Shevchenko, a Bloc of Yulia Tymoshenko parliamentarian, told a TV audience that President Viktor Yanukovych and his Regions Party could not appoint people like Tabachnyk and not expect a response. “Force is met with force,” he said.
While it may seem paradoxical, however, Svoboda and the Party of Regions need each other politically but for different reasons, said Vasyl Rasevych, a senior research fellow at the Institute of Ukrainian Studies, National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine.
Svoboda needs to show it is the only nationally-oriented party that can stand up to the Regions. Regions needs Svoboda as a tool for clamping down on democracy; it can say borderline Fascist parties are coming to power democratically in Ukraine and this tendency needs to be stopped.
Svoboda is a trump-card in that process, said Rasevych. Regions will argue that the party is a “danger for everyone” and just like Hitler came to power through democratic elections, Svoboda has come to power legitimately.
“The Party of Regions is beginning to turn back democracy,” Rasevych said.
Lviv-based political observer Vozniak expressed dismay that Western media has tended to turn a blind eye to the Regions’ anti-Ukrainian policies, but was quick to denounce Svoboda. The danger posed by the party has been overstated, analysts said.
“Svoboda is made up of different people,” said Vozniak. The party is now faced with a significant challenge and that is how to govern on the local level, Rasevych said. It is woefully short on professionals who can manage the kinds of issues that face municipal governments.
“They have few qualified specialists,” he said. “And many of these people don’t have an idea of what local councils do.”
To that end, analysts are divided whether the Oct. 31 local elections mark the height of Svoboda's popularity, or just the beginning. Much will depend on whether democracy grows or ebbs in Ukraine.
Officials in Kyiv, however, remain unimpressed by such analyses. Hanna Herman, the deputy head of the presidential administration, told the independent Zerkalo Tyzhnya newspaper that it was important to analyze how the people who voted for Svoboda “understand democracy.”
“Obviously the growth of the popularity of this political party is the result of the disappointment of so-called democrats,” she said.
Kyiv Post staff writer Natalia A. Feduschak can be reached at feduschak@kyivpost.com
Bohdan Beniuk, an honored Ukrainian actor who is also Svoboda’s co-head, then took the microphone. Calling his theatrical colleague a “beautiful Russian nationalist…who loves his country” Beniuk asked a question that resonated with the audience: “Why don’t I have the right to be a Ukrainian nationalist?”
That statement summed up the feeling of many Svoboda supporters and residents in western Ukraine who have distressingly watched the pro-Russian Party of Regions increasingly assault their country’s language, culture, history and even territorial integrity since taking power earlier this year.
Yet equally unhappy with the infighting of the democratic opposition parties that used to represent them, voters here have called for new leaders who would stand up for their rights and challenge the kind of attitudes displayed by individuals like Panin, whether it be at home or abroad.
“It’s a reaction to Russian chauvinism,” and the current policies of the Regions Party, said Taras Vozniak, a Lviv-based political observer and editor-in-chief of the independent Ji magazine, said of Svoboda’s solid electoral showing.
Once considered a nationalist fringe group, Svoboda has stepped in to fill a perceptible void. The party has vowed to keep Ukrainian as the only state language, promised to rid the country of officials like education and science minister Dmytro Tabachnyk, who has maligned western Ukrainians by saying they really aren’t Ukrainian, and to defend the country’s sovereignty.
“This leadership is leading us to blood and civil war,” if it continues with its current anti-Ukrainian policies, Oleh Tiahnybok, Svodoba’s party leader, warned on the same show.
Nationwide, Svoboda took 5.2 percent of the Oct. 31 vote, a result that would win it a place in Ukraine’s parliament if elections were held today.
The party now has a majority in the Lviv city council, the largest faction in the Lviv, Ivano-Frankivsk and Ternopil regional councils, as well as the largest factions in the Ternopil and Ivano-Frankivsk city councils.
Ternopil held regional elections in 2009, which was when Svoboda signaled its rise as a regional political player.
Olha Palaciuk from Ternopil said she voted for Svoboda because she wanted to give young people a chance at governance. “Who else could I vote for?” she asked.
To a great extent, however, the Party of Regions has helped give rise to Svoboda through its policies, analysts and politicians said.
Andriy Shevchenko, a Bloc of Yulia Tymoshenko parliamentarian, told a TV audience that President Viktor Yanukovych and his Regions Party could not appoint people like Tabachnyk and not expect a response. “Force is met with force,” he said.
While it may seem paradoxical, however, Svoboda and the Party of Regions need each other politically but for different reasons, said Vasyl Rasevych, a senior research fellow at the Institute of Ukrainian Studies, National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine.
Svoboda needs to show it is the only nationally-oriented party that can stand up to the Regions. Regions needs Svoboda as a tool for clamping down on democracy; it can say borderline Fascist parties are coming to power democratically in Ukraine and this tendency needs to be stopped.
Svoboda is a trump-card in that process, said Rasevych. Regions will argue that the party is a “danger for everyone” and just like Hitler came to power through democratic elections, Svoboda has come to power legitimately.
“The Party of Regions is beginning to turn back democracy,” Rasevych said.
Lviv-based political observer Vozniak expressed dismay that Western media has tended to turn a blind eye to the Regions’ anti-Ukrainian policies, but was quick to denounce Svoboda. The danger posed by the party has been overstated, analysts said.
“Svoboda is made up of different people,” said Vozniak. The party is now faced with a significant challenge and that is how to govern on the local level, Rasevych said. It is woefully short on professionals who can manage the kinds of issues that face municipal governments.
“They have few qualified specialists,” he said. “And many of these people don’t have an idea of what local councils do.”
To that end, analysts are divided whether the Oct. 31 local elections mark the height of Svoboda's popularity, or just the beginning. Much will depend on whether democracy grows or ebbs in Ukraine.
Officials in Kyiv, however, remain unimpressed by such analyses. Hanna Herman, the deputy head of the presidential administration, told the independent Zerkalo Tyzhnya newspaper that it was important to analyze how the people who voted for Svoboda “understand democracy.”
“Obviously the growth of the popularity of this political party is the result of the disappointment of so-called democrats,” she said.
Kyiv Post staff writer Natalia A. Feduschak can be reached at feduschak@kyivpost.com
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While I am happy that Svoboda is pro Ukrainian I am concerned that there will be deeper divisions in the country. It might mean that Ukraine's political landscape will have 3 parties - Western (Ukrainian), Central (Moderate) and Eastern (more sympathetic to Russia).
As long as elections are democratic then this is all a good thing.
Accurate representation in government is the goal here. Now if only these elected officials cared for the people who elected them.....
dream on , the bandits in power only think of their own back pocket
Yesterday the "bandits" were Westerners AKA Galicians and now they are the Little Rusians AKA Donetsk'? I prefer the menage a trois of indigenous, moderate and chauvinist.
Too bad their leader is anti semitic. Stupid. Other than that if the party has young people who are pro ukrainian - this might be a refreshing change.
Kindly provide some backing for your assertion that Tiahnybok is "anti-semitic".. there's nothing in Svoboda's political platform that condone's or even implies anti-semitism, or even xenophobia. It is simply affirmative of Ukrainian language, culture, and national interest. AND they have yet to prove themselves corrupt...Something sorely lacking in other political forces.
If anti-Russian doesn't rally the rabble cry anti-semitic.
“In Soviet times, it was more difficult to visit a synagogue than a church,” he said.
Read more:
http://www.kyivpost.com/news/guide/chatroom/detail/89670/#ixzz154eojcb0
remember yush kicked him out of the our ukraine coalition because he was talking about jews this and jews that....
The sovok relics keep repeating the same lies over and over.
Tyahnybok was never in the Our Ukraine bloc.
What about "jews this and jews that"?
Again, what's popular in Ukraine, besides sovok relic disinformation, is "argument" by implication.
Ukraine needs to concentrate ion the concept of citizenship not the perceived National identity of those who live in Ukraine. Nationalism is as a political tool is divisive and dangerous as what one person thinks is their nationality is not the same as another. There are many shades of greasy and spectrum of the rainbow. Svoboda won out because the other players had lost respect and confidence. Svoboda managed to secure the highest vote not the majority vote. Ukraine as a state still remains divided not on the ideology of economics or social values but on the divisions of national ethnicity. Its not even a question of race but a question of which branch of the family tree you come from. The sooner Ukraine can establish a party that is concerned about its citizens and not national divisions the better off Ukraine will be. Citizenship not nationalism is the basis of democracy.
Why are we not concerned with the pro-Russian national division?
5% means it has just replaced Yushchenko's Our Ukraine. If fresh elections were held Our Ukraine would lose Parliamentary representation. The reason why Our Ukraine lost support was its betrayal of its constituency. Whilst Svoboda would cross the 3% threshold it would not win government or the presidency. Under a presidential system it would have every little influence other than act as a party in opposition. Under a parliamentary system Svoboda would have a greater influence and possible role in the formation of government.
Ukraine is made up of a number of various national/ethnic identities. Russian, Polish, Hungarian, Hutzal, Tarot, Swedish, German, Romanian. It is a diverse state, and its diversity is what makes Ukraine. Its diversity and various national interests should be celebrated not in opposition to each other. Svoboda has a role to play in representing its constituency (Many who are of polish influence). All nationalism is an ethnic groups in Ukraine should have equal rights under the law and constitution of Ukraine.
best comment so far
thank you !
And this is the excuse for centuries of anti-Ukrainianism?
Nobody thought of "celebration of divesity" during centuries of anti-Ukrainian policies, and only when we finally got our independent state, you shout "celebrate diversity".
Status quo must be restored first, only then we will decide what to do next.
Party of Regions is Svoboda's biggest financial sponsor...
Prove
So you are bullying him?
You are using intimidation censorship,
he used no profanity.
hopefully the tide is now starting to turn.
Slava Ykraini
I think a Western Ukraine country is the solution- no one in East and southern Ukraine cares about Ukraine language or culture do they?
Disinformation from delusional Moskali are irrelevant!
They svoboda are at their high point by time of oct 2012 rada election economic reforms will be well underway.Unless they can offer people in east,south something they will amount to nothing more than a western regional party.
Did you notice that that there have been demonstrations throughout Ukraine.
The comments that pit West against East are from kremlin propagandists that do not have Ukraine in their hearts'.
Whether you are a UKRAINIAN speaking UKRAINIAN or a Russian speaking UKRAINIAN then you are a UKRAINIAN.
If you are a russian speaking russian then you are a russian and not a UKRAINIAN and you should at least pretend to care about the many problems in russia and not ferment problems in UKRAINE.
Isn't it great that there are still free thinking Ukrainians who are standing up to the corrupt and dictatorial imbecile puppet of putin and convicted criminal Yanuconvict? Despite the rigging of elections, the criminal still has not got control of everything.
"The ban on the activity of the Federal National and Cultural Autonomy of Ukrainians is an obvious confirmation of serious and systemic violations by Russia of the rights of those of its citizens, who are Ukrainians, to maintain their own language and culture," reads the letter by deputies to Foreign Minister Kostiantyn Hryschenko.
Read more:
http://www.kyivpost.com/news/nation/detail/91638/20/page/1/#comments#ixzz16gkAhggU