Right-Centrists to Come Together

A seminar called Right Centrism: What is It was held at Pushcha-Ozerna health center near Kyiv, led by British MP Richard Page.

The seminar was initiated by the Conservative Party of Great Britain with the assistance of the Westminster Foundation, the Moderate Party of Sweden, and the Jarl Hiarlmarson Foundation.

Center-Right parties of Western Europe have resumed, after a temporary retreat, taking leadership, as evidenced by elections to European Parliament and regional elections in Great Britain and Germany. This background sharply contrasts to a blurred Center Right spectrum in Ukraine, which can be accounted for by, above all, poor understanding of the trend’s foundations by the parties which base their programs on its ideology.

The seminar became an attempt to improve the situation. The participants focused their attention on the problems political parties’ line-up in Ukraine on the eve of presidential elections and the possibility of forming a center-right coalition to contest the next Verkhovna Rada elections. It was decided to form a Coordination Council of Center-Right Forces as the first step toward coming together. The coalition’s strategic goal is to create an integrative pan-Ukrainian ideology coupled with other ideas meeting the interests of most Ukrainian residents, representative of the Westminster Foundation in Ukraine Natalia MUSIYENKO reports.

The following Ukrainian representatives were invited to take part in the seminar: leaders of the Reforms and Order Party, Christian People’s Union, All-Ukrainian Christian Association, the Congress of Ukrainian Nationalists, the Popular Movement of Ukraine (Rukh), the Open Politics Association, along with People’s Deputies, experts from the Institute of Sociology and the Institute of Philosophy (both under the Ukrainian National Academy of Sciences), the Institute of Politics, non-governmental organizations, and political analysts of the leading mass media.