| Party of Regions Партія регіонів |
|
|---|---|
| Leader | Mykola Azarov[1] |
| Honorary Leader | Viktor Yanukovych |
| First Deputy | Volodymyr Rybak |
| Parliamentary leader | Oleksandr Yefremov |
| Founded | October 26, 1997 |
| Headquarters | Kiev, Ukraine |
| Newspaper | Vremya Regionov |
| Youth wing | Young Regions |
| Ideology | 1Regionalism[2] Pro-Russia[3][4] Authoritarianism[5][6] |
| Political position | 1Centre[7][8] |
| International affiliation | None |
| Official colours | Blue |
| Verkhovna Rada |
192 / 450
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| Website | |
| www.partyofregions.org.ua | |
| Politics of Ukraine Political parties Elections 1The party contains different political groups with diverging ideological outlooks[7] |
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The Party of Regions (Ukrainian: Партія регіонів, pronounced [ˈpɑrtijɑ rɛɦiˈɔniu̯]; Russian: Партия регионов) is an Ukrainian political party created on October 26, 1997 just prior to the 1998 Ukrainian parliamentary elections under the name of Party of Regional Revival of Ukraine.[10] It was reformed later in 2001 when the party united with several others. According to the party’s leadership in 2002, from the creation of the party to the end of 2001 the number of members jumped from 30,000 to 500,000.[11] The party claims to ideologically defend and uphold the rights of ethnic Russians and speakers of the Russian language in Ukraine.
It originally supported president Leonid Kuchma and joined the pro-government United Ukraine alliance during the parliamentary elections on 30 March 2002. The party's leader is the former Acting Ukrainian Prime Minister Mykola Azarov. The areas the Party of Regions does well in are mostly parts of historic Novorossiya. Its electoral and financial base is located primarily in the east and south-east of Ukraine, where it enjoys wide popular support.[12] In the Eastern Ukrainian Donetsk Oblast the party claims to have over 700,000 members. The party is supported mostly by people older than 45 years.[12]
American consultant Paul J. Manafort has advised the party and its former leader Yanukovych since 2005.[13][14]
The party signed a collaboration agreement in 2005 with Russia's "United Russia".[15] In September 2009 Mykola Azarov declared about the creation of Anti-Fascist Forum of Ukraine, chairmen of which became a member of parliament Dmytro Shentsev (Kharkiv) and the head of Luhansk Region State Administration Valeriy Holenko.[16][17] The forum was created during the International conference "World War II: results and meaning for Ukraine" that took place in Kharkiv on the initiative of the Assembly of Slavic Peoples.
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The founding congress of the Party of Regional Revival of Ukraine was held on 26 October 1997 in Kiev.[18] The first leader of the party was the mayor of Donetsk Volodymyr Rybak.[18] On November 6, 1997, the Party of Regional Revival of Ukraine was registered at the Ukrainian Ministry of Justice.[10]
During the 1998 parliamentary elections Party of Regional Revival of Ukraine won 0,90% of the votes.[10] A single party representative was elected to the Ukrainian Parliament by winning one constituency at the regular elections.[18] The party was among the top 10 in Chernivtsi and Donetsk Oblast. Rybak was the winner of constituency number 45 in Donetsk Oblast.[19]
In the summer of 1999, the party entered the electoral bloc "Our choice - Leonid Kuchma", who endorsed incumbent President Leonid Kuchma in the presidential election of 1999.[18]
The Party of Regions was created in March 2001 from the unification of five parties.[20] On July 18, 2000, leaders of five political parties, inspired by Petro Poroshenko, leader of Solidarity, announced their willingness to join their parties into a single entity. On November 18, 2000, five political entities: the Party of Regional Revival of Ukraine, Solidarity, the Party of Labor, the Party for the Beautiful Ukraine and the National Party of Pensioners, merged into the new structure and three co-chairmen wher elected: Volodymyr Rybak of the Party of Regional Renaissance of Ukraine, Petro Poroshenko and Valentyn Landyk, leader of the Party of Labor. It was joined by a number of others, among them (the future Mayor of Kiev) Leonid Chernovetsky and Mykola Azarov, a long-standing ally of then President Leonid Kuchma, who was elected leader of the party in March 2001 but resigned in December (2001).,[20] his successor was Vice Prime Minister Volodymyr Semynozhenko.[21] In December 2001 the Party of the Regions member Igor Yushchko was appointed Minister of Finance of Ukraine.[21]
Regions of Ukraine was the parliamentary wing of the Party of Regions, it was created at the end of March 2001[21] after several deputies defected from their original faction. Critics claimed the deputies were "lured away" from those other factions by pressure and analysts claimed most of them had nothing to do with the new party.[22] Nine out of seventeen members of the faction had their political and business roots in the Donetsk region.[21] On March 20, 2001 Solidarity announced it would "be as a single bloc".[22]
During the Ukrainian parliamentary election the party was a member of the For United Ukraine electoral bloc.[10][23] It was then led by Volodymyr Semynozhenko.[24]
From November 21, 2002 until December 7, 2004, Viktor Yanukovych was Prime Minister.
At a congress held on April 19, 2003 Viktor Yanukovych was elected party leader, succeeding Volodymyr Semynozhenko.[25] At that time the party had 20 seats in parliament.[26]
The party shifted its political ideology to the left and became much more populist in nature before the Ukrainian presidential election, 2004 and, as a result, Yanukovych won over a large part of the Communist party's electorate in eastern Ukraine. The party announced support for making Russian a second official language in Ukraine, a pro-Russian foreign policy, and increased social spending. It also advocates the regionalist ideology, and many members support making Ukraine a federation.
The Party of Regions moved to opposition after its candidate, Viktor Yanukovych, lost the 2004 presidential election. The party leader first claimed an electoral victory but strong allegations of electoral fraud triggered a series of events commonly known as the Orange Revolution. In the re-run of the presidential election ordered by the country's Supreme Court, Viktor Yanukovych lost the election to Viktor Yushchenko.
The Party claimed to be a victim of a political persecution campaign organized by the new government. Also because Borys Kolesnykov, the head of the regional party branch and the Donetsk regional council, was arrested in April 2005 and charged with criminal extortion.[27] The Party of Regions claims this is an act of political repression, while the authorities believe that Kolesnykov had links to organized crime and his arrest is a purely criminal matter. The Council of Europe called the investigation "in full compliance with European standards".[28] Kolesnykov has since been cleared of charges and released from pre-trial detention.[29]
At the parliamentary elections on 26 March 2006, the party gained 32,14%[10] of votes and 186 (out of 450) seats in the Verkhovna Rada(the Ukrainian Parliament), forming the largest parliamentary group. On July 6, 2006, the Socialist Party abandoned the "Orange Coalition" between Our Ukraine, and the Yulia Tymoshenko Bloc following the failure of each bloc to reach agreement on on the formation of a governing coalition.
On July 10, 2006 A new parliamentary majority titled the "anti-crisis coalition", led by the Party of Regions and including the Socialist Party of Ukraine and the Communist Party was formed nominating Viktor Yanukovych to the post of prime minister.
The coalition remained in office until the special parliamentary elections held in September 2007
At the Crimean parliamentary election, 2006 the party was part of the For Yanukovych! election bloc.[30]
On January 19, 2007, Yevhen Kushnaryov, a member of Party of Regions' died in Izium as a result of an accidental gunshot wound received while hunting.
In mid-2007, the Ukrainian Republican Party and Labour Ukraine merged into the Party of Regions.[31]
At the parliamentary elections held on 30 September 2007, the party won 175 seats (losing 11 seats) out of 450 seats with 34.37% of the total national vote.[10] The party received the highest number of votes with a swing of +2.23% in comparison to the 2006 vote.
Following the formation of a governing coalition between Our Ukraine and the Yulia Tymoshenko Bloc and the election of Yulia Tymoshenko as prime-minister on December 18, 2007 the Party of Regions formed the parliamentary opposition.
On March 13, 2009 Victor Yanukovych stated the Party of Regions was ready to unite into a coalition with archrivals[32][33] Bloc of Yulia Tymoshenko, he noted that: "We are ready to unite but only on the base of the program on struggle with crisis".[34] The previous day the deputy leader of Bloc of Yulia Tymoshenko faction, Andriy Portnov, said that the union of his political force with the Party of Regions is highly improbable but that the union of the BYuT and the Party of Regions could be possible after the next Ukrainian presidential elections.[35] Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko stated on March 17, 2009 that her bloc was ready to join efforts with the Regions Party to pass certain bills in the Ukrainian parliament (Verkhovna Rada). "You are a representative of the Regions Party, [and] I represent the BYuT. It's time to join efforts for the benefit of the country," Tymoshenko said. [36] On March 30, 2009 Victor Yanukovych stated he did not believe in the possibility of forming a coalition with Yulia Tymoshenko Bloc in the current parliament. At the same time he added that “it would be necessary to agree on main issues” concerning amendments into the Constitution of Ukraine in the part of local self-government reform, judicial reform and clear division of authorities among President, government and parliament.[37] According to Yanukovych talks with BYuT were still ongoing late May 2008.[38]
Early June talks to build a broad coalition to address the economic crisis collapsed, Yulia Tymoshenko accused Yanukovich of betrayal: “He unilaterally, without warning anyone, quit the negotiation process, making a loud political statement, killing the merger and the chances for Ukraine”.[39]
In September 2009 Member of Parliament Vasyl Kiselev was expelled from the party and the political council of the Party of Regions. Kiselev was expelled “for violation of provisions and demands of the charter of the Party of Regions and harming the reputation of the party”.[40]
The Party of Regions endorsed Viktor Yanukovych as their candidate for the 2010 presidential election.[41] The party indented to create a new coalition in the Verkhovna Rada and form a new government if Yanukovych would win the 2010 presidential elections.[42] Yanukovych was elected President of Ukraine on February 7, 2010.[43][44] On February 19 the Ukrainian parliament terminated the powers of Ukrainian Member of Parliament (MP) Yanukovych, in his place #179th on the electoral list of the Party of Regions at the 2007 early parliamentary elections Tamara Yehorenko was registered as an MP by the Central Election Commission of Ukraine on February 26.[45] On March 3 Ukrainian President Yanukovych suspended his membership in the Party (Yanukovych was barred by the Constitution from heading a political party[46]) and handed over leadership in the party and in the parliamentary faction to Mykola Azarov,[25] 9 days later Azarov handed it to Oleksandr Yefremov. On March 11, 2010 together with Bloc Lytvyn and Communist Party of Ukraine the party joined the first Azarov Government[47]
The party elected a new leader at its 12th congress on April 23, 2010.[46][48] Prime Minister Mykola Azarov was elected.[1]
Seven extra deputies (four Bloc Yulia Tymoshenko (BYuT) members) joined the Party of Regions faction in October 2010.[9][49] In March 2011 five more former BYuT deputies joined the faction.[50][51]
During the 2010 Ukrainian local elections the party won majorities on most regional and city councils as well as most of the mayoralties (except in western Ukraine), and in the 2010 Crimean parliamentary election (where it won over 70% of the seats).[52] It was the only party that did win representatives in all Ukrainian Oblasts where elections where held and it won in all but 4 Oblasts of those Oblasts the most votes (the 4 Oblasts where it didn't where situated in Western Ukraine).[53]
In September 2010, the party was planning to sign a memorandum on cooperation with China's Communist Party.[54] In 14 October 2010, the Party of Regions formed a co-operative arrangement a with the Socialists and Democrats European parliamentary group.[55][56]
President Yanukovych and the Party of Regions have been accused of trying to create a "controlled democracy" in Ukraine and as a means to this are trying to "destroy" main opposition party BYuT, but both have denied this charges.[5][57][58][59][60][61][62][63][64][65]
In August 2011 Strong Ukraine and People's Party announced that both will merge with Party of Regions.[66][67][68][69] The merge between People's Party and Party of Regions did not materialize.[70]
Late 2011 the parties popularity dropped in opinion polls below 20%; mainly because the party was loosing votes to the Communist Party of Ukraine.[71][72]
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According to a poll by the Kyiv International Sociology Institute the number of voters ready to go to polling stations to vote for Party of Regions dropped from 38% in June 2010 to 13.9% in April 2011.[73]
The party asserts to have a pragmatic approach to Ukrainian EU membership in terms of the country's foreign economic interests; it supports "to walk the path of European integration and the implementation of respective standards in the social and economic spheres". Yet, given the European financial crisis, the party sees the issue of Ukraine's accession to EU as "purely theoretical."[74]
The party accepts Ukrainian to be the only state language in Ukraine, but also claims to promote "both the development of the state Ukrainian language and languages of other nationalities residing on the territory of Ukraine".[75][76]
The Party of Regions supports the cancellation of a number of benefits for deputies of the Ukrainian parliament.[77]
Several billionaires have been member of the Party of Regions faction in the Verkhovna Rada.[78][79][80]
Party of Regions publishes a nation-wide newspaper called Время Регионов (English: Time of the Regions). The newspaper is based and published in Kiev, the newspaper is released weekly, every Thursday, in Ukrainian and Russian. The newspaper was launched on 24 August, 2008. The newspaper is available online in PDF format.
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