Serhiy Peresunko, leader of the Social Democratic Union (SDS) who supported Yevhen Marchuk in the presidential elections, said at a press conference last Thursday that Mr. Marchuk’s decision to take up the post of Secretary of the National Security and Defense Council was not unexpected for his party. Rather, the latter was surprised by the position of Leonid Kuchma who agreed to hold talks with an opposition leader and thus showed “the first example of a civilized dialogue.” Obviously, it is within the framework of this dialogue that SDS must act, trying to identify its place in the spectrum of political parties.
Mr. Peresunko claims “SDS does not intend to express a bourgeois trend in the Ukrainian Social Democracy,” while his desire to vote against changing the Verkhovna Rada leadership, which may be initiated by the Vice Speaker, can only confirm SDS determination to pursue its own (and not situational) program goals. For instance, SDS leaders intend to promote the adoption of a legal reform concept by way of a constructive dialogue with the President. According to Mr. Peresunko, Mr. Marchuk, who remains their political leader, “will be able to achieve the implementation of our societal strategic development program, which will later cause radical changes in Ukraine’s socioeconomic situation and in the President’s entourage.”
“But if we see,” Mr. Peresunko says, “that those in power do not support our ideas and do not strive to implement the program provisions with which we came to the elections,” the party and its leader will take an opposition stand to those currently in power, which confirms that “Marchuk has opted for cooperation with the authorities because his work will foster the betterment of the people’s life and not his own position.”






