“The government played good cop and bad cop”

The adoption of the new law on the parliamentary elections speeded up the consolidating processes among the Ukrainian parties. It had an immediate effect. Realizing that the situation is hopeless the political forces that will not enter the new parliament and those on the verge resumed the talks with a new ardor. It is known that the Ukrainian People’s Party, the Congress of the Ukrainian Nationalists, Our Ukraine and the Ukrainian Republican Party “Sobor” have already started the talks about merging into one party. The leftists are not lagging behind. It is also known that the Socialist Party will soon merge with 10 smaller leftist parties and its name will change. According to Stanislav Nikolaienko (the party Justice), all the parties will merge with the SPU and after that its statute, program, and name will be modified.

Meanwhile, the oppositionist parties that have voted for the new law have made a common declaration. The parties Fatherland, Front of Change, People’s Self-Defense, Reforms and Order suggested the oppositionist forces acting jointly during the elections to the Verkhovna Rada: “Our parties have already started a systemic work to protect the free expression of the popular will. It comprises the tight control of the election process, forgery barring and endorsement of the candidates in majoritarian districts. The opposition fractions did their best to eliminate any possibilities of the systemic forgery in the law adopted by the Verkhovna Rada that the government planned to reuse after trying them during the local elections.”

“Fatherland, Front of Change, People’s Self-Defense and Reforms and Order calls upon the oppositionist forces, especially the parties making part of the Committee for Dictatorship Resistance, to take an active part in the development and realization of the common strategy and tactics of the opposition’s actions.”

The support of the new version of the law on the parliamentary elections by the opposition was severely criticized by the leader of the party Civic Stand that left on November 21 the Committee for Dictatorship Resistance Anatolii HRYTSENKO:

“I do not think that this law on parliamentary elections is a compromise. It was rather collusion between the Party of Regions and the leaders of the fractions BYuT-Batkivshchyna and NU-NS. Before speaking about it in public I went the whole way of the inner discussions. I tried to persuade both our fraction and the fraction of BYuT-Batkivshchyna that the opposition cannot serve as a co-ver and sanctify the new law by voting for it since it has one purpose: to give Yanukovych much more people in the new parliament than he would have had if the current law had been preserved. We understand that the rating of the Party of Regions is decreasing that is why with the current law Yanukovych could have received 15 percent maximum and the opposition would have made 85 percent. I mean that after the parliamentary elections the situation would have been absolutely different. Now the question arises: are all of those who pretend to make part of the opposition real oppositionists?”

Did the opposition members that supported the new law consult you before doing it?

“There have been meetings of the political councils and various discussions. I clearly voiced my position. First of all, the members of the opposition have to exit from the Temporary Special Commission. Secondly, the opposition should not have voted for this bill under any circumstances. If Yanukovych had adopted it on his own the people would have seen that half of the parliament did not vote for it. Nobody heard me.”

The oppositionists’ argument is that this law is better than Yefremov’s bill that would have been supported any way.

“I do not agree with this. The government played good cop and bad cop before the New Year. It is absolutely clear that the brutal forgery scheme built into Yefremov’s bill had a purpose to bully the opposition (the weak ones) and make them compromise. The power would not have adopted this bill, it would have cleaned all of those schemes up since they were too dirty. And now the oppositionists that supported this law repeat this argument like a mantra. It is absolutely false.”

What do you think the advantage of this law is, according to the oppositionists?

“There is no advantage. There was a lobby agreement that was realized through the vote. I saw the whole story in persons and, as they say, on-line. I saw how these talks happened; I saw the leaders of the fraction BYuT-Batkivschyna Mykola Martynenko, Arsenii Yatseniuk, Ruslan Kniazevych, Oleksandr Lavrynovych, Adam Martyniuk and Andrii Kliuiev repeatedly going from one room to another. Then they shook hands, hugged, kissed and went to vote. It was sad to watch it the more that a part of the people involved in this lobby show are in the Committee for Dictatorship Resistance. And they just shook hands with the ‘dictators’ and did not put up any resistance to them.”

Does it mean that the power managed to stir up tension and discord in the opposition camp?

“It does not make me happy since now the firm people have to consolidate.”

Who are you talking to about consolidation?

“It is not normal when there are 180 parties in the country. This situation is artificial and wrong. That is why the consolidation process is correct and the society will benefit from it. As for the party Civic Stand I would rather tell you about the result. The talks are in progress.”

For example, with Vitali Klitschko and Arsenii Yatseniuk?

“As for the party UDAR, I respect Vitali Klitschko. The talks with him are in progress. How-ever, we do not negotiate with Arsenii Yatseniuk.”

Are you ready to lose your leadership in a new party?

“When the party council of Civic Stand charged me with the duty of holding talks about consolidation, we withdrew the question of leadership. I am free to compromise during the talks; the new consolidated party does not have to be called Civic Stand and be headed by Anatolii Hrytsenko. So, we have removed all the barriers that could complicate the talks.”