Svoboda (political party)

All-Ukrainian Union "Svoboda" Всеукраїнське об'єднання "Свобода"
Leader	Oleh Tyahnybok
Parliamentary leader	Oleh Tyahnybok
Slogan	"20 Years of Fight"
Founded	October 13, 1991 Registered as political party on October 16, 1995.[5]
Preceded by	Social-National Party
Headquarters	Kiev
Membership  (2010)	15,000[1]
Ideology	Ukrainian nationalism[6] Right-wing populism[7]
Political position	Right-wing[8] to Far-right[9][2][10][11][12]
International affiliation	none
European affiliation	Alliance of European National Movements (observer status)[13]
Colors	Blue and Yellow
Verkhovna Rada	36 / 450 [14]
Regions (2010)	132 / 3,056 [15]
Website
http://www.svoboda.org.ua
Politics of Ukraine Political parties Elections

The All-Ukrainian Union "Svoboda" (Ukrainian: Всеукраїнське об’єднання «Свобода», Vseukrayinske obyednannia "Svoboda"), translated as Freedom, is a Ukrainian nationalist political party,^[1] and currently one of the five major parties of the country.^[16]

The party was founded in 1991 as the Social-National Party of Ukraine (Ukrainian: Соціал-національна партія України), an intentional reference to Adolf Hitler's National Socialist Nazi party.^[17] The party has acted as a proponent of nationalism, anti-communism. It is positioned on the right of the Ukrainian political spectrum,^{[8][1][18][19][20]} and has been described by some scholars as far-right.^{[2][10][11][12]} Svoboda’s socioeconomic platform has been described as similar to that of the Republican Party for the United States, and its approach to ethnic relations as mirroring policy in the Baltic states.^[21]

The current party leader (elected every two years^[22]) is Oleh Tyahnybok, who has held the role since February 2004.^[1]

During the 2009 and 2010 local elections in Galicia, the party made significant gains and became a major force in local government.^[23][24] In the 2012 Ukrainian parliamentary elections, Svoboda won its first seats in the Ukrainian Parliament,^[25] garnering 10.44% of the popular vote and the 4th most seats among national political parties;^[26] this transposed into 37 parliamentary seats.^[27] In October 2012, Svoboda joined a formal coalition with the centre-right Batkivshchyna and UDAR parties to form the parliament's collective opposition.

History

Social-National Party of Ukraine

The Social-National Party of Ukraine (SNPU) was registered as a party on October 16, 1995;^[5][28] although the original movement was founded on October 13, 1991, in Lviv. Membership was restricted to ethnic Ukrainians, and for a period the party did not accept atheists or former members of the Communist Party. The SNPU's official program defined itself as an "irreconcilable enemy of Communist ideology" and all other parties to be either collaborators and enemies of the Ukrainian revolution, or romanticists. During the 1994 Ukrainian parliamentary elections, the party presented itself as separate from both communist and social democrat platforms.^[29]

In the 1998 parliamentary elections the party joined a bloc of parties (together with the All-Ukrainian Political Movement "State Independence of Ukraine")^[30] called "Less Words" (Ukrainian: Менше слів), which collected 0.16% of the national vote.^[28][31][32] Party member Oleh Tyahnybok^[33] was voted into the Ukrainian Parliament in this election.^[33] He became a member of the People's Movement of Ukraine faction.^[33]

The party established the paramilitary organization Ukraine’s Patriot in 1999 as an "Association of Support" for the Military of Ukraine. The paramilitary organization, which continues to use the Wolfsangel symbol, was disbanded in 2004 during the SNPU's reformation, and reformed in 2005.^[1] Svoboda officially ended association with the group, but they remain closely linked,^[34][35] with representatives of Svoboda attending social campaigns such as protests against price increases and leafleting against drugs and alcohol.^[36]

In 2001, the party joined some actions of the "Ukraine without Kuchma" protest campaign and was active in forming the association of Ukraine's rightist parties and in supporting Viktor Yushchenko's candidacy for prime minister, although it did not participate in the 2002 parliamentary elections.^[28] However, as a member of Victor Yushchenko’s Our Ukraine bloc, Tyahnybok was reelected to the Ukrainian parliament.^[33] The SNPU won two seats in the Lviv oblast council of deputies and representation in the city and district councils in the Lviv and Volyn oblasts.^[29]

In 2004 the party had less than 1,000 members.^[2]

All-Ukrainian Union "Svoboda"

The Social-National Party of Ukraine changed its name to the All-Ukrainian Union "Svoboda" in February 2004 with the arrival of Oleh Tyahnybok as party leader.^[1] It moved to improve its image, replacing the "I + N" ("Idea Natsii" ukr. "idea of a nation") Wolfsangel logo by a three-fingered hand reminiscent of a 'Tryzub' pro-independence gesture of the late 1980s, also pushing out the radical neo-Nazi and racist groups.^[37] One such neo-fascist group, "Patriots of Ukraine",^[38][39] operating independently of Svoboda since 2007^[40], continue to use a form of the Wolfsangel revised to no longer be interpreted as "I + N."^[37]

In 2004 Tyahnybok was expelled from the Our Ukraine parliamentary faction for a speech calling for Ukrainians to fight against a "Muscovite-Jewish mafia" - using two highly insulting words to describe Russians and Jews.^[33][38][41]

In the 2006 local elections the party had obtained 4.2% of the votes and 4 seats in the Ternopil Oblast Council, 5.62% of the votes and 10 seats in the Lviv Oblast Council and 6.69% of the votes and 9 seats in the Lviv city council.^[2]

In the 2007 parliamentary elections, the party received 0.76% of the votes cast,^[28] more than double their share during the 2006 parliamentary elections, when they received 0.36%.^[28] It was ranked eighth out of 20 parties (in the 2007 elections) and the non-participation of the Congress of Ukrainian Nationalists made the party the only far-right party to participate in the 2007 parliamentary elections.^[2]

In the autumn of 2009, Svoboda joined the Alliance of European National Movements as the only organisation from outside the European Union.^[1] That year the party claimed to have 15,000 members.^[2]

Electoral breakthrough

The party's electoral breakthrough was the 2009 Ternopil Oblast local election when they obtained 34.69% of the votes and 50 seats out of 120 in the Ternopil Oblast Council.^[2] This was the best result for a far-right party in Ukraine’s history.^[2]

The party leader Tyahnybok's candidacy in the 2010 presidential election did not build on the 2009 Ternopil succes.^[2] Tyahnybok received 1.43% of the vote.^[42] Most of his votes he gained in Lviv oblast, Ternopil oblast and Ivano-Frankivsk oblast accounted to 5% of the vote.^[43] In the second round, Tyahnybok did not endorse a candidate. He did present a list of some 20 demands for second round candidate Yulia Tymoshenko had to fulfil first before gaining his endorsement - which included publicizing alleged secret deals Tymoshenko had with Vladimir Putin and ridding herself of what he called Ukraine-haters in her close circles.^[44]

During the 2010 Ukrainian local elections the party won between 20-30% of the votes in Eastern Galicia, where it became one of the main forces in local government.^[23] The 2009 provincial elections in Ternopil had previously been the greatest success of the Svoboda party, when it won 34.4 per cent of votes cast.^[24] During the 2010 Ukrainian local elections, Svoboda surpassed this figure, accounting for 5.2% of the vote nationwide.^[45] Analysts explained Svoboda’s victory in Galicia during the 2010 elections as a result of the policies of the Azarov Government, who were seen as too pro-Russian by the electorate.^[45][46][47] According to Andreas Umland, Senior Lecturer in Political Science at the National University of Kyiv-Mohyla Academy,^[48] Svoboda's increasing exposure in the Ukrainian media has contributed to its recent successes.^[47]

Between 2004 and 2010, party membership increased threefold to 15,000 members^[1] (traditionally party membership is low in Ukraine^[49][50][51]).

As of 2011, Svoboda has factions in eight of Ukraine's 25 regional councils, and in three of those Svoboda is the biggest faction.^[52] Umland and novelist Andrey Kurkov have accused the Party of Regions of giving "unofficial support" to Svoboda to make their main opponent, BYuT, weaker.^[47][53] Reportedly, the members and supporters of Svoboda are predominantly young people.^[1]

Several clergymen of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Kyivan Patriarchate, Ukrainian Autocephalous Orthodox Church and Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church are Svoboda members and have stood for election as Svoboda chosen candidates.^[54] According to the party, they were chosen on election lists "to counterbalance opponents who include “Moscow priests” in their election lists and have aspirations to build the “Russian World” in Ukraine".^[54] Per the party's desire to separate the clergy from politics, all churchmen will be recalled if a draft Constitution of Ukraine proposed by the party is approved.^[54]

2012 elections

In July 2012 the party agreed with Batkivshchyna on the distribution of the candidates in single-seat constituencies (its share was 35 constituencies)^[55] in the October 2012 parliamentary elections.^[56] In the run up to these elections various opinion polls predicted the national vote (in a parliamentary election) of the party to sixfolded or sevenfolded which would make it possible that the party would pass the 5% election threshold.^[57][58] But the parties results in the elections where much better than that with 10,44%^{[nb 1]} (almost a fourteenfold of its votes compared with the 2007 parliamentary elections^[28][38]) of the national votes and 38 out of 450 seats in the Ukrainian Parliament.^[59][60] The lion's share of these votes votes were won in Western Ukraine (30-40% in three Oblasts), while in Eastern Ukraine it won 1% of the votes.^[38] At the at 116 foreign polling stations Svoboda won most votes of all parties with 23,63% of all votes.^[61] In Lviv the party reportedly won over 50% of the votes.^[62] In Kiev it became the second most popular party, after Fatherland.^[63] Voting analysis showed it was the party most popular among voters with a higher education (about 48% of its voters had a higher education).^[63] Oleh Tyahnybok was elected leader of the party's parliamentary faction (also) on 12 December 2012.^[64] On 19 October 2012 the party and Batkivshchyna signed an agreement "on the creation of a coalition of democratic forces in the new parliament".^[65] The party is also coordinating its parliamentary activities with Ukrainian Democratic Alliance for Reform (UDAR).^[66]

In recent years, the BBC writes that "Svoboda" has "tapped a vast reservoir of protest votes" because of its anti-corruption stance and because it has softened its own image.^[38][63] According to Sociological group "RATING" the percentage of the party's electorate who only use the Ukrainian language decreased from 75% to 68% between September 2012 and March 2013.^[67]

After 2012 election

In May 2013 "Svoboda", "Fatherland" and UDAR vowed to coordinate their actions during the 2015 Ukrainian presidential election.^[68]

In an opinion poll conducted on December 7–17, 2013, respondents showed that in a presidential election between Viktor Yanukovych and Svoboda leader Tyahnybok, results found that Tyahnybok would win with 28.8% of the popular vote, versus Yanukovych's 27.1%.^[69]

Euromaidan campaign

Svoboda actively participates in the ongoing pro-European Union protest campaign aimed at influencing regime change and integration with the EU.

After the Vladimir Lenin monument in Kiev was toppled during the ongoing Euromaidan protest, MP Igor Myroshnychenko officially accepted responsibility for this action on behalf of the Svoboda,^[70] though it is unclear whether the party organized and/or planned it.

Ideology

Svoboda's ideological base emanates from Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists leader Yaroslav Stetsko's "Two Revolutions" doctrine (written in 1951).^[71] The essence of this doctrine states: "the revolution will not end with the establishment of the Ukrainian state, but will go on to establish equal opportunities for all people to create and share material and spiritual values and in this respect the national revolution is also a social one".^[71] A crucial condition for joining Svoboda is that its members must belong to the Ukrainian nation.^[29]

Nationalism

Svoboda is a party of Ukrainian nationalism and in 2011 was noted for favoring a solely presidential regime.^[47] In 2013, however, the party pushed for constitutional reform which would limit the president's powers and return power to parliament.^[72][73]

According to party leader Oleh Tyahnybok, Svoboda is not an ‘extremist’ party; he said that "depicting nationalism as extremism is a cliché rooted in Soviet and modern globalist propaganda".^[52] He also stated that "countries like" Japan and Israel are fully nationalistic states, "but nobody accuses the Japanese of being extremists".^[52] According to Tyahnybok, the party's view of nationalism "shouldn’t be mixed with chauvinism or fascism, which means superiority of one nation over another", and that its platform is called “Our Own Authorities, Our Own Property, Our Own Dignity, on Our Own God-Given Land”.^[74]

The party's agenda is set out in an article entitled "Nationalism and pseudonationalism" published on the official website of the party. Svoboda member Andriy Illienko calls for a "social and national revolution in Ukraine," a "major shift in [the] political, economic, [and] ethical system", and the "dismantling [of] the liberal regime of antinational occupation". Illienko explains that "only the revolution can now prevent Ukraine from the brink, and make it the first modern nationalist state that will ensure continuous development of the Ukrainian nation, and show other nations the path to genuine sovereignty and prosperity."^[75]. Illienko continues that cultural details are not important for a nationalist who "must wake up with the idea that he is a metal political soldier of Nation." ("Націоналіст... забов'язаний просинатися з думкою, що він – залізний політичний солдат Нації..."). This document sets up the enemy of Svoboda, a pseudonationalist, a person who wants "all-ukrainian values" ("українськість","щоб все було українське") and adheres to "conventional liberalism [of] 'civilized' Western democracy and capitalism". Another attribute of a pseudonationalist is the belief in "Free market", "democracy", "fighting authoritarianism" [the quotes are from the original document].

The party views the dominating role of Ukraine's oligarchy as "devastating".^[76] While oligarchs have typically played a major role in the funding of other Ukrainian parties,^[77][78] Svoboda claims to receive no financial support from oligarchs, but rather from Ukraine's small and medium-sized businesses.^[79]

The party seeks to put a stop to immigration into Ukraine, and to make sure that only ethnic Ukrainians can be employed as civil servants.^[80]

Anti-Communism

Svoboda is known for its anti-Communist stance, and several party activists over the years have been accused of trying to destroy Communist-era statues.^{[81][82][83][84][85]}

On February 16, 2013, police in Ukraine opened a criminal case on charges of hooliganism against nationalist activists lead by Svoboda Supreme Rada deputy Ihor Miroshnychenko for the dismantling of a statue of Vladimir Lenin in Okhtyrka, Sumy Oblast. “There is no place for Communist symbols and ideology in European Ukraine and if the authorities cannot get rid of them, we will do it ourselves”, said Miroshnychenko. According to police, Miroshnychenko climbed the statue and put a rope around Lenin’s figure, which was then pulled down by a truck.^[86]

Stances

Party leader Oleh Tyahnybok (in January 2011) has described the Azarov Government and the presidency of Viktor Yanukovych "a Kremlin colonial administration",^[52] referencing Svoboda's opposition to perceived Russian influences in Ukrainian politics.

Before the 2012 Ukrainian parliamentary election most of the radical points which were present on the Svoboda’s original party platform vanished from the official election program that Svoboda filed with the Central Election Commission of Ukraine. In its place, a tamer, populist program focused on the impeachment of President Viktor Yanukovych and the renunciation of the 2010 Kharkiv agreements that let Russia’s Black Sea Fleet stay in Crimea through 2042 was used.^[63] In its campaign for the 2008 Kiev local elections the party also used less ethnic nationalist terms and it relied more on a strong anti-establishment, populist and anti-corruption rhetoric.^[2]

Points in the Svoboda party programme (have) include(d):

• Ukraine—a presidential republic, head of state is the head of government
• Lustration of state authority: publication of lists of all Soviet KGB agents that served or continue to serve in Ukraine, dismissal of such people as well as members of the former Communist Party of the Soviet Union from state leadership positions, replace them with graduates of the Ukrainian universities
• Criminal prosecution for “Ukrainophobia”^[47]
• Only those born in Ukraine can become Ukrainian citizens, with the exceptions for those who have lived in Ukraine for more than 15 years, know the Ukrainian language, culture and Ukrainian Constitution^[63]
• Renunciation^{[nb 2]} of the 2010 Kharkiv agreements^[63][87]
• Impeachment of President Viktor Yanukovych^[63]
• Ban on abortion, except in cases of medical necessity, or rape;^[63][88] and imprisonment from three to seven years for those who violate this ban^[88]
• Criminalization of public promotion of abortions or calls for abortions (by introducing a fine for doing so)^[88]
• The right to keep and bear arms^[63]
• Cancelling taxes on Ukrainian language products — films, music and literature — and instead imposing taxes on non-Ukrainian language products.^[89] The proceeds obtained this way will be channeled into developing Ukrainian language products^[89]
• Nationalization of major enterprises,^[89] greater state control of the banking system and a ban on privatization of land^[63]
• Energy independence for Ukraine^[89]
• The development of competitive industries, particularly food processing and aircraft engineering, shipbuilding, machine-tool construction, machine manufacturing, the military industrial complex and the aerospace industry^[89]
• Ban on the import of the food products that are also produced inside Ukraine and import only exotic food that is not domestically grown^[89]
• The restoration of the Soviet practice of indicating the ethnic origin in passports and on birth certificates^[38][47]
• Proportional representation on executive bodies of ethnic Ukrainians, on the one hand, and national minorities, on the other^[38][47][90]
• Ban on adoptions by non-Ukrainians of Ukrainian children^[47]
• Preferential treatment for Ukrainian students in the allocation of dormitory places, and a series of similar changes to existing legal provisions^[47]
• Ordained persons should have no right to be elected to state authorities or local self-government authorities^[54]
• Abolition of Crimean autonomy^[1]
• Abolition of value added tax^[1]
• Farmlands are to be state-owned and given to farmers in hereditary use^[1]
• The state is to implement a firm pro-family policy^[1]
• Dismissal of employees of state structures who had been active in the Soviet apparatus before 1991^[1]
• Decommunization of public space (monuments, names of streets and places)^[1]
• Russia should apologize "for its communist crimes"^[1]
• Ukraine is to leave the Commonwealth of Independent States "and other post-Soviet structures"^[1]
• An explicit guarantee of accession to NATO within a set period of time^[1]
• Ukraine should again re-acquire tactical nuclear weaponry^[1]

Svoboda also states in its programme that it is both possible and necessary to make Ukraine the “geopolitical centre of Europe”.^[47] The European Union is not mentioned in the programme.^[1] According to Party leader Oleh Tyahnybok the programme is a worldview based on Christian values of the rejection of various deviations.^[89]

Member of parliament Ihor Miroshnychenko asked the head of the Kiev City State Administration Oleksandr Popov on 7 March 2013 to ban a LGBT march that was held the next day because he believed it would "contribute to promoting sexual orientation" and he further stated in his request "homosexuality provokes sexually transmitted diseases and AIDS".^[91] The 8 March rally was in fact not an LGBT march but organized by feminist organizations.^[92]

Language

Late January 2013 Svoboda urged Ukrainians to boycott revised Ukrainian history textbooks and give up the learning of the Russian language in school, calling Ukrainians "to categorically refuse to study in school the language of the occupier – Russian, as a further reliable means of the assimilation of Ukrainians".^[93]

Criticism

Allegations of xenophobia and racism

Svoboda has been described as an anti-Semitic and sometimes a Neo-Nazi party by international newspapers,^[17][80][94] organizations that monitor hate speech,^[95] Jewish organizations,^[96][97] and political opponents.^[41]

Political scientist Tadeusz A. Olszański writes that the social-nationalist ideology which Svoboda formerly adhered to has included "openly racist rhetoric" concerning 'white supremacy' since its establishment, and that comparisons with National Socialism are legitimized by its history; however, Svoboda’s policy documents contain no racist elements.^[1] According to Der Spiegel, "anti-Semitism is part of the extremist party's platform," which rejects certain minority and human rights.^[17] The paper writes that Svoboda's earlier "Social-National Party" title was an "intentional reference to Adolf Hitler's National Socialist party," and that a Svoboda youth leader distributed Nazi propaganda written by Joseph Goebbels in 2013.^[17] According to journalist Michael Goldfarb, Svoboda's platform calls for a Ukraine that is “one race, one nation, one Fatherland,” and criticized the party for honoring the Waffen-SS Galicia (of which the historical role of the unit is contested).^[94]

The party has also been criticized for their honoring historical figure Stepan Bandera, considered a Ukranian hero by Svoboda members and some Ukrainians, but a Nazi collaborator by others, especially in Russian-speaking cities.^[98] Bandera is a controversial figure for his role in leading the Ukrainian Insurgent Army (UPA), which fought the Soviets and Nazi Germany for an independent Ukrainian state but also, according to some historians, contained members who cooperated in the killing of thousands of Jews during Nazi occupation;^[99] Tyahnybok has commended the UPA for fighting "Russians, Germans, Jewry and other crap."^[100] Global Research also describes Bandera as a Nazi collaborator.^[101][102] According to Christopher Miller of the Kyiv Post, Bandera was instead the target of a heavy smear campaign by Soviet propaganda which portrayed him as an anti-Semite and Nazi collaborator.^[103]

In 2004 party leader Tyahnybok was expelled from the Our Ukraine parliamentary faction for a speech calling for Ukrainians to fight against a "Muscovite-Jewish mafia."^[33][38] Svoboda advisor Yuriy Mykhalchyshyn established a "‘Joseph Goebbels Political Research Centre" in 2005, later changing "Joseph Goebbels" to "Ernst Jünger."^[1] Mykhalchyshyn wrote a book in 2010 citing works by Nazi theorists Ernst Röhm, Gregor Strasser and Goebbels.^{[38][80][104]} Elsewhere Mykhalchyshyn referred to the Holocaust as a "period of Light in history".^[105]

Andreas Umland, a political scientist at the National University of Kyiv-Mohyla Academy,^[48] has asserted that "Svoboda is a racist party promoting explicitly ethnocentric and anti-Semitic ideas".^[106] He also believes that internally, Svoboda "is much more radical and xenophobic than what we see”.^[59] However, Umland has also stated that he believes the party will continue to become more moderate over time, stating that "there's a belief that Svoboda will change, once in the Verkhovna Rada, and that they may become proper national democrats".^[38] Olexiy Haran, also a political science professor at the Kyiv-Mohyla Academy, says “There is a lot of misunderstanding surrounding Svoboda" and that the party is not fascist, but radical.^[103]

Svoboda members have denied the party is anti-Semitic.^{[107][108][109]} Party leader Tyahnybok stated in November 2012 “Svoboda is not an anti-Semitic party, Svoboda is not a xenophobic party. Svoboda is not an anti-Russian party. Svoboda is not an anti-European party. Svoboda is simply and only a pro-Ukrainian party”.^[59] In defense of these accusations, Tyahnybok has stated "I have repeatedly said that Svoboda is not an anti-Semitic organization. If you have any comments on our views, go to court. But nobody will, because everyone understands that even biased Ukrainian courts cannot pass any sentence against Svoboda because we do not violate Ukrainian laws."^[110][111] Tyahnybok says a criminal case was opened against him for promoting racial rights, but he managed to win all the court cases and protect his name.^[74]

Prominent Ukrainian journalist and president of TVi Channel Vitaly Portnikov defended criticisms towards Svoboda, as he noted he is often questioned for supporting party leader Oleh Tyahnybok despite himself being Jewish. Portnikov said, "I [stand with them] with great pleasure, because Oleh wants Ukraine to be part of the European Union" and that "presently Svoboda is acting in a very decent way, and I see no problem there. Right-wing parties function in every European country."^[20]

Criticism as device by opponents

According to Olszański, Ukrainian media associated with the Party of Regions, the Communist Party of Ukraine, and Russophile groups contribute to a trend to demonize Svoboda as a "Nazi menace."^[1] Olszański writes that voters from southern or eastern Ukraine, especially those poor, less educated, or attached to the "Soviet historical narrative," are hostile to the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists, and easily convinced that Svoboda is the inheritor of Nazi invaders, a threat to peace, and that the Party of Regions should be voted for as the only force capable of stopping a ‘brown revenge’.^[1] According to political scientist Taras Kuzio, the label "nationalist" is "disastrous" in Russian-speaking regions of Ukraine and used as an epithet by political opponents.^[41] Attempts to present all opposition to the ruling regime as “nationalist” and all nationalists as “fascists” date back to Soviet era.^[112] Kuzio writes that former president Viktor Yushchenko's decision to allow Svoboda to participate in the Ukranian opposition coalition has allowed opponents to brand them as "anti-Semitic" and "following in the footsteps" of Nazi collaborators.^[41] Svoboda's popularity has been credited with popular dissatisfaction with xenophobic, anti-Ukrainian, and Russian supremacist policies pursued by the Party of Regions since early 2010.^[21] Svoboda leader Tyahnybok's 2004 "Muscovite-Jewish mafia" comment^[38] was widely circulated on the three TV channels controlled by the head of the Presidential Administration, Viktor Medvedchuk: State Channel 1, 1+1 and Inter,^[41] however, Kuzio notes that Ukranian authorities of the Party of Regions also make anti-Semitic comments, but these are not publicized.^[41]

In 2011 the party was accused by some Ukrainian media and political analysts of being used by Party of regions to split the vote of its main national opponents Bloc Yulia Tymoshenko and other civic nationalist parties;^[1] this has been denied by the party.^[113]

In December 2012 the European Parliament expressed concern regarding Svoboda's growing support, recalling "that racist, anti-Semitic and xenophobic views go against the EU's fundamental values and principles," and appealed "to pro-democratic parties in the Verkhovna Rada not to associate with, endorse or form coalitions with" Svoboda.^[114] Party leader Oleh Tyahnybok stated in March 2013 that the EU warning against Svoboda's influence was the result of "Moscow agents working through a Bulgarian socialist MP".^[89] Referencing a similar resolution made by the NATO Parliamentary Assembly, Tyahnybok claimed it to be a result of a mud-slinging campaign by political opponents, stating: "When we did not have a parliamentary faction or normal channels for contacting influential groups in the European Union, a very negative image of Svoboda was created and in an extremely crude fashion." However, after speaking to European MP's he stated they "admitted that they had received completely different information about us."^[89] Tyahnybok furthermore stated that "spin doctors who are working against Svoboda" cover up the non-controversial points in the party's election programme "by promoting some clearly secondary issues through mass media outlets controlled by pro-government forces".^[89]

Member of parliament with the pro-presidential Party of Regions,^[115] and president of the Jewish Committee of Ukraine Oleksandr Feldman criticized Svoboda as a "party which is notorious for regularly injecting anti-Semitism into their speeches and public pronouncements" and accused the party of "rallying behind this recognition and exploited mistrust of Jews to gain popularity among some in the lower class who painfully welcomed the chance to be a part of campaigns of hate".^[116][117] Feldman also writes that Svoboda has helped erode the shame associated with open expressions of anti-Semitism and other ethnic hatreds.^[118] Feldman has been an advocate for the Party of Regions and president Viktor Yanukovych, reportedly also funding the latter's public relations firm.^[119] During the Euromaidan protests, Feldman said the protests had degenerated into “ultra-nationalism and anti-Semitism,” and called for opposition leaders Arseniy Yatseniuk and Vitali Klitschko to distance themselves from Svoboda. Four groups, including the Ukrainian Helsinki Human Rights Union, said they have seen no upsurge in anti-Semitic attacks. “We call on Ukrainian citizens and foreign observers to remain calm and critically assess the panic-mongering statements in the media regarding anti-Semitism in the country,” the groups said in a statement on the website of the Euro-Asian Jewish Congress.^[115]

During a Party of Regions support rally in Kiev counter to the Euromaidan protests, MP Olena Bondarenko said during a speech that Svoboda leader Oleh Tyahnybok was a "traitor" and one "who helps the Kremlin and Moscow." Her words were controversially altered to read on her party's website that he was instead a "Nazi" and that "Nazis are not just disrespected, they are outlawed in Europe and throughout the civilized world".^[120] During the Euromaidan protests, which Svoboda helped organize, Prime Minister Azarov of the Party of Regions called protesters "Nazis and extremists".^[121] Overt attempts to use anti-Semitism as a propaganda weapon against the EuroMaidan movement have been noted, and reports of widespread anti-Semitism dismissed by authoritative analysts, historians and human rights activists.^[112][122]

Incidents drawing international attention

In early 2012, Svoboda was criticized after party member Yuri Sirotyuk said that Ukranian pop star Gaitana, who is of African descent, was a poor choice to represent Ukraine at the Eurovision Song Contest 2012 because she did not represent Ukrainian culture.^[123] "It looks like we don't want to show our face," Sirotyuk said, "and Ukraine will be associated with a different continent, somewhere in Africa."^[123][124]

Ihor Miroshnychenko, Svoboda deputy leader and member of parliament drew criticism in December 2012 for writing on his Facebook wall that American actress Mila Kunis, who was born in the Ukrainian SSR and is of Jewish descent, is ”not Ukrainian but a Yid" (Ukranian zhydivka).^{[125][126][38][80][127]} Both Ukrainian academics and Svoboda argued that in the Ukrainian language the word does not have the anti-semitic connotations that it always does in the Russian language;^{[125][128][nb 3]} the Ukrainian Ministry of Justice declared that Miroshnichenko's use of the word was legal because it is an archaic term for Jew, and not necessarily a slur.^[125][127] Svoboda has repeatedly stated that it will not stop using such words, which it says are legitimate Ukrainian parlance.^[125]

On March 19, 2013, Svoboda members booed a speech delivered by Party of Regions parliamentary leader Oleksandr Yefremov in Russian. Yefremov accused the Svoboda deputies of being neo-fascists, who then charged the speaker, sparking a fistfight between both sides in parliament.^{[95][129][130]}

Condemnations by Jewish organizations

Ukraine’s Chabad-affiliated chief rabbi Moshe Azman explained the situation: “They know anti-Semitism is preventing the good relations they seek [...] But Svoboda is not a uniform entity and I’m not sure the leaders control the rank and file.”^[118] Yaakov Bleich, Ukraine’s chief rabbi, said “Svoboda is an enigma in many ways,” calling it “a right-wing, nationalist party with anti-Semitic elements in it.”^[115] Jewish leaders in Ukraine believe Svoboda’s success in the 2012 Ukrainian parliamentary election owes more to frustration with the establishment than to its anti-Semitic statements.^[118]

Ihor Kolomoyskyi, president of the United Jewish Community of Ukraine, stated in 2010 that the party has clearly shifted from the far-right to the center.^[131] Vyacheslav A. Likhachev of the Eurasian Jewish Congress, said that the “party has a very anti-Semitic core in its ideology.” and that “symbolic legitimization of Neo- Nazis and anti-Semitic ideology in the eyes of society.”^[62]

Thirty members of the Israeli Knesset condemned the party in a signed letter addressed to the President of the European Parliament. In the letter the Israeli politicians accused Svoboda of "openly glorifying Nazi murder" and "Nazi war criminals".^[132] In May 2013 the World Jewish Congress labelled the party as "neo-Nazi" and called for European governments to ban them.^[133]

Criticism within Svoboda

Former members of Svoboda have criticized the organization for requiring prospective members to submit their birth certificates and internal passports in order to verify their ethnicity.^[134]

Electoral results

Parliamentary since 2002
Year	Block	Votes	%	Mandates (const.)
1994		49,483	0.20	- (0)
1998	Less Words	45,155	0.20	0 (1)
2002	Did not participate
2006		91,321	0.36	0 (0)
2007		178,660	0.76	0 (0)
2012		2,129,246	10.45	25 (12)

Date	Party leader	Remarks
1995–2004	Yaroslav Andrushkiv
2004-present	Oleh Tyahnybok

Representation in regional councils

Oblast council	Flag	Total council members	Svoboda %	Svoboda individual seats won	Svoboda total seats won
Ternopil oblast council		120	34,69%	—	50
Lviv oblast council		116	25,98%	16	41
Ivano-Frankivsk oblast council		114	16,60%	5	17
Volyn oblast council		80	7,44%	1	6
Rivne oblast council		80	6,34%	1	5
Chernivtsi oblast council		104	3,90%		4
Kyiv oblast council		148	3,48%	0	5
Khmelnytskyi oblast council		104	4,06%	0	5

Change in party voting

• 

  2006 parliamentary

• 

  2007 parliamentary

• 

  2010 (January — presidential) for Tyahnybok

• 

  2010 (October, local election)

• 

  2012 parliamentary

See also

• Ukrainian nationalism
• Alliance of European National Movements

Notes

References

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to All-Ukrainian Union "Freedom".

• Svoboda official website
• (Ukrainian) Tyahnybok prevents return of Zakarpattya under the Hungarian influence on YouTube

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