| Party "Union" Партія "Союз" |
|
|---|---|
| Leader | Lev Mirimsky[1] |
| Founded | 11 June 1997[2] |
| Headquarters | Kiev |
| Political position | Centre-left |
| International affiliation | None |
| Official colours | Blue |
| Website | |
| http://mir.im/ | |
| Politics of Crimea |
|
The Party "Union" (Ukrainian: Партія "Союз") is a national political party of Ukraine that is mostly based in Crimea. It was registered in June 1997 under a registration number 867.[2]
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The Constituent Party Congress took place on March 15, 1997. Svitlana Savchenko was elected the leader of the party. The congress also adopted the party's program and statute. The party was formed on the basis of the prohibited Crimean party.[3]
II Congress (October 4, 1997), city of Simferopol. At the congress was adopted the party's pre-election program.
III Congress (November 16, 1997). The congress confirmed the list of deputies for the next elections which was registered with Central Election Commission on December 18, 1997.
IV Congress (July 11, 1998). The congress reviewed the election campaign of the party and made some changes to the party's Political council and its statute. The party's flag was adopted as well. The flag represented by a white field (1x2 m) with a dark-blue circle in the middle where a friendly handshake of two hands is depicted. The top and bottom edges of the flag covered by red lanes in 1/8 of the flag's width.
During the Ukrainian presidential election, 2004 the party supported Viktor Yanukovych.[4]
During the Ukrainian parliamentary election, 1998 the party balloting independently won 0.70% of the national vote. Prior to the parliamentary elections of 2002 Lev Myrymsky stated that the party already had two of its representatives in the Verkhovna Rada although officially in proportional representation the party did not win seats in the national parliament[5] and only won a single seat by a single-seat constituency according to the official statistics from the Central Electoral Commission.[6] At the Ukrainian parliamentary election, 2002 the party was part of the Russian Bloc (Ukrainian: Русский блок) that got 0.73% of the votes and no seats. Ukrainian parliamentary election, 2006 the party was a member of the bloc "For Union" (Ukrainian: ЗА СОЮЗ), that bloc won 0.20% of the votes. In the 30 September 2007 elections, the party again failed as part of the Electoral Bloc of Political Parties "KUCHMA" to win parliamentary representation.
During the 2010 Ukrainian local elections the party won representatives in municipalities in Crimea and 5 seats (out of 100 total seats) in the Supreme Council of Crimea.[7][8]
The party advocates the merging of Ukraine "in an interstate union of Belarus and Russia". Wants Russian to be the state language in Ukraine (currently Ukrainian is the only state language in Ukraine). The party is against Ukraine joining NATO, the rehabilitation of (as the put it) "Nazi criminals from the UNA-UNSO and "against the omnipotence of bureaucrats and corruption".[9]
In October 2009 the Crimean branch of the party asked Russian President Dmitry Medvedev, Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin and Chief Executive of Gazprom Alexei Miller to consider the issue of possible deliveries of natural gas to Crimea and Sevastopol in 2009-2010 at prices charged to citizens of Russia.[10]