Jailed former prime minister Yulia Tymoshenko's appeal for Ukraine's entire opposition to come together in a single party has been dismissed by two opposition leaders, who argued that fight against President Viktor Yanukovych and his government would be more effective if each opposition group had its own front.
“We have different programs, different political platforms, different ideologies, and therefore different voters. Work will be much more effective if it’s done by several groups separately. The last elections proved this – we went to them in separate columns, and the three groups gained more [votes] in total than a unified political association would have been able to,” said Vitali Klitschko, leader of the UDAR party.
He added that different opposition parties do coordinate their efforts and do take consolidated action in combating the Yanukovych administration.
Oleh Tiahnybok, leader of nationalist party Svoboda, spoke in the same vein.
“I don’t think that it makes sense to create a political force where different ideologies are represented,” he said.
Tiahnybok said UDAR, Svoboda and Tymoshenko’s Batkivschyna party are nevertheless jointly fighting “the gangster regime of Yanukovych.”
Earlier, Tymoshenko said: “It is an ideal option to carry on with the unification of opposition forces and to set up a single party, because the Party of Regions bulldozer can only be stopped by a powerful opposition force that enjoys indisputable public support. The unification of the opposition with the people will bring forward the demise of this colossus with feet of clay, which is what the Yanukovych regime really is.”
Arseniy Yatseniuk, Batkivschyna’s parliamentary leader, argued that it should be one of the opposition’s main tasks to create a united party, a party that “is capable of winning not only parliamentary but also presidential elections.”
