Opposition Bloc (2019) Explained

Opposition Bloc
Native Name:Опозиційний блок
Оппозиционный блок
Leader1 Title:Leader
Leader1 Name:Yevheniy Murayev
Leader2 Title:Deputy Leader
Leader2 Name:Oleksandr Vilkul
Leader3 Title:Chairman
Leader3 Name:Borys Kolesnikov
Leader4 Title:Parliamentary Leader
Leader4 Name:Vadym Novynskyi
Predecessor:Opposition Bloc (2014)
Merger:Opposition Bloc (2014) (Akhmetov's wing)
Party for Peace and Development
Affiliation1 Title:Affiliate parties
Affiliation1:Nashi
Revival
Trust Deeds
Strong Ukraine
Christian Socialists
Kernes Bloc
Agrarian Party (united)
For Case Studies
Headquarters:Kyiv
Ideology:Social liberalism[1] [2] [3]
Regionalism[4] [5]
Russophilia[6] [7] [8]
Euroscepticism
Successor:Ukraine is Our Home
Position:Centre[9] to centre-left[10] [11] [12]
Affiliation2 Title:Oligarch association
Affiliation2:Donetsk Clan[13]
Colours: Blue White
Website:opposition.com.ua
Flag:Opposition_Bloc_2019.png
Country:Ukraine

Opposition Bloc (Ukrainian: Опозиційний блок, Russian: Оппозиционный блок), formerly called Opposition Bloc — Party for Peace and Development (Ukrainian: Опозиційний блок — Партія миру та розвитку, Russian: Оппозиционный блок - Партия мира и развития) until June 2019, was a Ukrainian political party that was founded in 2019. On 8 June 2022, the party was banned in court. The party officially ceased to exist on 25 July, due to not appealing the ban.

The creation of the party was the result of a schism in the Opposition Bloc party, a party of the same name founded in 2014. By January 2019, two wings of this party had nominated two different candidates for the 2019 Ukrainian presidential election.[14] [15] Yuriy Boyko was nominated by the party wing called Opposition Platform — For Life,[16] while a competing party wing wanted to nominate Oleksandr Vilkul as its candidate. The party wing supporting Vilkul formed a new party, Opposition Bloc — Party for Peace and Development. That new party proceeded to nominate Vilkul as its presidential candidate. In the 2019 Ukrainian parliamentary election, the new party won six single-seat constituencies, and its nationwide list won 3.23% of the votes, failing to overcome the 5% election barrier.[17]

Legally, Opposition Bloc — Party for Peace and Development is the successor of the Industrial Party of Ukraine (Ukrainian: Індустріальна Україна, Russian: Индустриальная Украина) founded in 2014.

History

In 2014, six parties that did not endorse Euromaidan merged into a new party called Opposition Bloc,[18] [19] which was social-liberal and pro-Russian.[20] In the 2014 Ukrainian parliamentary election, the party won 29 seats, predominantly in the Dnipropetrovsk, Donetsk, Zaporizhzhia, Luhansk, and Kharkiv oblasts.[21] [22]

According to Ukrainska Pravda, in the summer of 2018, negotiations began regarding the unification of the parties For Life (which had split from Opposition Bloc in 2016) and Opposition Bloc.[15] Ukrainska Pravda reported that these talks were instigated by Serhiy Lyovochkin, who, along with Dmytro Firtash, controlled one of the wings of Opposition Bloc;[15] Rinat Akhmetov controlled the other wing of Opposition Bloc.[15] In early November 2018, the party members loyal to Akhmetov decided to pause the negotiations.[15]

On 9 November 2018, Opposition Bloc chairman Boyko and Vadim Rabinovich's party For Life signed an agreement for cooperation in the 2019 Ukrainian presidential election and the parliamentary election of the same year, and created the alliance Opposition Platform — For Life.[23] [24] The same day, Opposition Bloc leading members Vadym Novynskyi and Borys Kolesnikov claimed that the agreement was a "personal initiative" of Boyko and that the party had not taken any decisions on cooperation with For Life.[25] On 17 November 2018, Opposition Platform — For Life nominated Boyko as its candidate in the 2019 Ukrainian presidential election.[24] The same day, Opposition Bloc member Party of Development of Ukraine joined the Opposition Platform — For Life alliance.[24] On 20 November 2018, Boyko and Serhiy Lyovochkin (the leading member of the Party of Development of Ukraine[26]) were excluded from the Opposition Bloc faction because they "betrayed our voters' interests", according to the faction co-chairman, Vilkul.[27]

On 17 December 2018, an Opposition Bloc congress nominated Oleksandr Vilkul as their candidate in the 2019 Ukrainian presidential election.[28] A Ukrainian court had ruled three days before (in response to a lawsuit filed by People's Deputy of Ukraine for Opposition Bloc Serhiy Larin) that Opposition Bloc's congress, at which Vikul was to be nominated, could not "reorganize the party by any means".[29] On 18 December 2018, the website of Opposition Bloc stated that therefore all of the decisions made at the congress were invalid.[30] On 20 December 2018 the website of Opposition Bloc was down.[31] Vilkul was nominated for the presidency again by Opposition Bloc — Party of Peace and Development (the recently renamed Industrial Party of Ukraine) on 20 January 2019.[32] According to Liga.net, Rinat Akhmetov had renamed Industrial Party of Ukraine to Opposition Bloc — Party of Peace and Development solely to circumvent the court's injunction of 20 December 2018 (which prohibited any changes to the statute of the Opposition Bloc party).[32] The Industrial Party of Ukraine was registered by the Ministry of Justice on 13 June 2014, and Rostyslav Shurma was then the chairman of that party. Shurma was at the time General Director of Zaporizhstal, part of the industrial complex owned by Rinat Akhmetov.[33]

In the 2019 Ukrainian parliamentary election, an alliance was formed between Rinat Akhmetov's wing in the Opposition Bloc party and Borys Kolesnikov's and Oleksandr Vilkul's Party of Peace and Development. The alliance was later joined by Revival, Nashi, and Trust Deeds; the alliance selected Evgeny Murayev as leader of the united party list.[34] [35] In the election, the mayors of Kharkiv (Hennadiy Kernes) and Odesa (Gennadiy Trukhanov) were placed in the top ten of the nationwide party list.[36]

In the 2019 Ukrainian parliamentary election, the party won six single-seat constituencies; the nationwide list, with 3.23% of the votes, did not overcome the 5% election barrier, so those six seats were the only seats that the party won in the election.[17]

In the 2020 Ukrainian local elections the party gained 206 deputies (0.48% of all available mandates).[37] It saw success in Zaporizhzhia Oblast, where it gained eight seats on the Zaporizhzhia Oblast Council.[38]

By 2021, the party's activities had winded down significantly, and the Ukrainian press announced that the political project itself was de facto closed.[39] The party's leading figure, oligarch Rinat Akhmetov, announced the creation of a new political force in April 2021 on the basis of Opposition Bloc.[40] In early May, one of the other key figures of Opposition Bloc Borys Kolesnikov announced the creation of a new political force Ukraine is Our Home.[41] Since the beginning of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, collaborationism has become widespread among party members. So, on March 12, 2022, thanks to cooperation with the Russian army, Galina Danilchenko, a representative of the Opposition Bloc in Melitopol, was proclaimed by the Russians as “acting mayor of the city.” This happened the day after the arrest of Mayor Ivan Fedorov by the Russian military.[42] On the same day, she announced that the city council would be abolished and would be replaced by a “Committee of People's Representatives”.[43] Danilchenko appealed to the city residents to “adapt to the new reality” in order to quickly start living in a new way and thanked the head of Chechnya, Ramzan Kadyrov, for the humanitarian assistance.[44]

On 20 March 2022, Opposition Bloc was one of several political parties suspended by the National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine during the Russian invasion of Ukraine, along with Derzhava, Left Opposition, Nashi, Opposition Platform — For Life, Party of Shariy, Progressive Socialist Party of Ukraine, Socialist Party of Ukraine, Union of Leftists, and the Volodymyr Saldo Block.[45]

On 9 May 2022, the head of the Opposition Bloc in the Zaporizhzhia Oblast, Yevgeny Balitsky, appointed to the post of head of the Zaporozhye military–civilian administration.[46]

On 8 June 2022, the Eighth Administrative Court of Appeal banned the Opposition Bloc. The property of the party and all its branches were transferred to the state. The decision was open to an appeal at the Supreme Court of Ukraine.[47] But the decision was not appealed, so on 25 July 2022 the party ceased to exist.[48]

Party leaders

Political Council

Fraction in Verkhovna Rada leader

Election results

Local councils

See also

References

  1. News: Tadeusz A. Olszański. Ukraine's political parties at the start of the election campaign. Centre for Eastern Studies. 17 September 2014.
  2. https://web.archive.org/web/20191218044058/http://opposition.com.ua/ru/pershochergovi-kroki-opozicjjnogo-bloku-po-vikhodu-z-krizi-vidnoviti-mir-i-pidnyati-ekonomiku/ Первоочередные шаги ОППОЗИЦИОННОГО БЛОКА по выходу из кризиса – восстановить мир и поднять экономику
  3. https://web.archive.org/web/20191024022029/http://opposition.com.ua/upload/iblock/9ad/9adcb37ede8dec1bf513ffaae5a04b09.pdf Проект Конституции
  4. Web site: Ukraine. Parties and Elections in Europe. 2014. 13 May 2019. https://web.archive.org/web/20190513021025/http://parties-and-elections.eu/ukraine.html. Wolfram. Nordsieck.
  5. Web site: Anti-recessionary Program of the Opposition bloc. Opposition.org.ua. 29 March 2018.
  6. Selenskyjs Triumph birgt ein hohes Absturzrisiko, Wiener Zeitung (22 July 2019)
  7. Ukraine: Präsident Selenskij steuert auf seinen zweiten Wahlsieg zu, Tageblatt (21 July 2019)
  8. Kiew in der Hand der "Diener des Volkes", Schwäbische Post (23 July 2019)
  9. Web site: Ukraine. Parties and Elections in Europe. 2019. 27 July 2019. Wolfram. Nordsieck.
  10. Book: Yakymenko, Yury. Transformation of the party system: Ukrainian experience in the European context . Razumkov Center . 2017. 64-65 . uk .
  11. https://web.archive.org/web/20191218044058/http://opposition.com.ua/ru/pershochergovi-kroki-opozicjjnogo-bloku-po-vikhodu-z-krizi-vidnoviti-mir-i-pidnyati-ekonomiku/ Первоочередные шаги ОППОЗИЦИОННОГО БЛОКА по выходу из кризиса – восстановить мир и поднять экономику
  12. https://web.archive.org/web/20191024022029/http://opposition.com.ua/upload/iblock/9ad/9adcb37ede8dec1bf513ffaae5a04b09.pdf Проект Конституции
  13. Web site: 15 July 2022 . Rinat Akhmetov was one of the most powerful oligarchs in Ukraine with his own media empire. Why is he refusing her now? . 13 January 2024 . Meduza.
  14. Opposition split. How Boyko and Vilkul divide the legacy of "regionalists", Ukrainska Pravda (18 December 2018)
  15. "Odd-man-out. Why Leovochkin and Medvedchuk are preparing for the election without Akhmetov", Ukrainska Pravda (20 November 2018)
  16. Boyko began registering as a presidential candidate, Ukrainska Pravda (17 November 2018)
    The association of Boyko-Rabinovich was determined with the presidential candidate, Ukrainska Pravda (17 November 2018)
  17. Web site: Новинський і ще 5 "опоблоківців" проходять у Раду, а Колесніков – ні.
  18. http://en.interfax.com.ua/news/general/225005.html Opposition Bloc chooses top ten candidates for parliamentary elections
  19. http://www.kyivpost.com/content/kyiv-post-plus/opposition-bloc-boosts-rating-by-distancing-itself-from-yanukovych-era-369312.html Opposition Bloc boosts rating by distancing itself from Yanukovych era
  20. News: Tadeusz A. Olszański. Ukraine's political parties at the start of the election campaign. Centre for Eastern Studies. 17 September 2014.
  21. http://www.ukrinform.ua/eng/news/poroshenko_bloc_to_have_greatest_number_of_seats_in_parliament_327072 Poroshenko Bloc to have greatest number of seats in parliament
  22. "OPPOSITION BLOCK", Civil movement "Chesno" (2018)
  23. https://www.kyivpost.com/ukraine-politics/two-russia-friendly-parties-join-forces-for-presidential-election.html Two Russia-friendly parties join forces for presidential election
  24. The association of Boyko-Rabinovich was determined with the presidential candidate, Ukrainska Pravda (17 November 2018)
  25. Boyko's decision to merge with Rabinovich does not concern the "Opposition" – Novinsky, Ukrainska Pravda (9 November 2018)
  26. The Party of Lyovochkin considers Ukrainian soldiers "punitive" and does not notice the annexation of the Crimea, UNIAN (11 August 2014)
  27. https://en.interfax.com.ua/news/general/546280.html Boiko, Loovochkin excluded from Opposition Bloc faction for betraying voters' interests — Vilkul
  28. https://www.kyivpost.com/ukraine-politics/oleksandr-vilkul-to-be-nominated-as-candidate-for-president.html Oleksandr Vilkul to be nominated as candidate for president
  29. Split "Opoploko": the court imposed restrictions on the party before the congress, Ukrainska Pravda (14 December 2018)
  30. Web site: В партии "Оппозиционный блок" заявили, что Вилкул не сможет выдвинуться от нее в президенты. gordonua.com. 20 December 2018.
  31. Web site: Is Opposition down? Check all opposition.org.ua outages . Is It Down Right Now? . 20 December 2018.
  32. Presidential elections: Kivu, Vilkul and Hnapa have been nominated, Korrespondent.net (20 January 2019)
    Kiva and Vilkul surrendered to the Central Election Commission, Ukrainska Pravda (22 January 2019)
  33. PARTY "INDUSTRIAL UKRAINE" HEADS "MAN AKHMETOV", 5 Kanal (26 August 2014)
  34. Web site: Parties of Opposition Bloc, Peace and Development, Vidrodzhennia, Ours and Trust Deeds declare unification to participate in Rada snap elections.
  35. Web site: Murayev heads Opposition Bloc's list at elections to Rada.
  36. Web site: Вибори Ради: у списку Опоблоку мери 5 міст.
  37. Web site: Results of the 2020 Ukrainian local elections on the official web-server of the . Central Election Commission of Ukraine. 12 January 2021. uk.
  38. https://www.cvk.gov.ua/pls/vm2020/pvm057pid112=12pid102=10635pf7691=10635pt001f01=695rej=0pt00_t001f01=695.html Results of the 2020 elections of the Zaporizhzhia Oblast Council
  39. https://www.pravda.com.ua/rus/articles/2021/04/26/7291502/ Ахметов идет в нападение. Как олигарх возвращает политическое влияние и забирает аудиторию Медведчука
  40. https://www.pravda.com.ua/rus/news/2021/04/26/7291542/ У Ахметова готовят новую партию и отмежевываются от ОПЗЖ
  41. https://inshe.tv/politics/2021-05-04/606636/ Борис Колесников все-таки создает новую партию. Но без Ахметова
  42. News: Santora . Marc . MacFarquhar . Neil . 2022-03-12 . The Russians Might Have Expected a Warm Welcome. Instead the Mayor Labeled Them ‘Occupiers.’ . en-US . The New York Times . 2023-11-21 . 0362-4331.
  43. Web site: У Мелітополі депутатка від Оппоблоку закликала мешканців співпрацювати з російськими окупантами . 2023-11-21 . nv.ua . uk.
  44. Web site: 2022-03-12 . "Гауляйтер в юбке": оккупанты назначили "врио мэра" Мелитополя . 2023-11-21 . ФОКУС . ru.
  45. Web site: NSDC bans pro-Russian parties in Ukraine . Ukrinform . 20 March 2022 . 20 March 2022.
  46. Web site: 2022-05-09 . Окупанти призначили одіозного екснардепа Балицького "губернатором" Запоріжжя . 2023-11-21 . 24 Канал . uk.
  47. Web site: The court banned the Opposition Bloc party. 9 June 2022. 9 June 2022 . babel.ua . en.
  48. Web site: The Sharia Party and the SPU are challenging their ban on appeal. 25 July 2022 . . uk.

External links