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Where there is no law, but every man does what is right in his own eyes, there is the least of real liberty
Henry M. Robert

When Difficult to Hide Their Own Mistakes, They Start Looking For "Enemies"

27 July, 1999 - 00:00

By Oksana PANCHENKO, The Day

On July 21, Mykola Porovsky, leader of the Republican Christian Party (RCP)
(in photo, right), speaking to journalists, "declared a war" on Yevhen
Marchuk. (All who know Mr. Porovsky, will exclaim: "Oh, no! This will be
a terrible war!" - Ed.). The RCP leader's exotic utterances were
caused by a new split in the Christian Republicans.

On the Sunday before last, the conference of the Ternopil oblast party
organization voiced its support for Mr. Marchuk in the forthcoming presidential
elections. Having condemned the "hopeless and conformist position of RCP,"
the oblast organization decided to disband itself and establish a Ternopil
oblast organization of the Ukrainian Republican Party (URP). Mr. Porovsky
pointed out that the party leadership never banned its district cells from
making a political choice, while RCP as a whole has chosen to support incumbent
President Leonid Kuchma. On the other hand, the party congress condemned
in no uncertain terms the policies of the current regime, and Mr. Porovsky
himself told The Day that he considered that the current President's
policy, particularly in the language issue, to be negative. Nevertheless,
he is inclined to explain the RCP split in terms of Mr. Marchuk's alleged
intrigues. However, his opponent, Levko Horokhivsky, who was appointed
acting chairman of the Ternopil oblast URP, takes an entirely different
view of the rift. "The initiative to quit RCP emerged as long ago as last
year, when it was too early to talk about supporting any candidate," Mr.
Horokhivsky told The Day, "and it emerged because Mr. Porovsky began
to rule the party in an authoritarian manner, ignoring the initiatives
of district organizations. It does not befit a party like RCP to support
the candidacy of Mr. Kuchma, a person who has brought this country to economic
collapse and pursues a policy of aggressive Russification. I think the
only reason for this choice of priorities lies in the existence of certain
agreements. Porovsky's policy is one of bargaining. I remember when URP
opposed then Prime Minister Fokin, only Mr. Porovsky and Larysa Skoryk
were against it, for, as it became known, Mr. Fokin had promised them ministerial
portfolios."

COMMENT

"The accusations made against me in connection with the RCP split are
groundless and artificial," Yevhen Marchuk said in an interview with the
Center for Journalistic Research. "I can only regret that Mr. Porovsky
tries to find external factors to explain the defection of his party's
Ternopil oblast branch." "Members of the RCP Ternopil oblast organization
made a voluntary decision to join the Ukrainian Republican Party, and,
since URP is part of the Our President Yevhen Marchuk election bloc,' I
cannot but welcome this step... It shows that the number of those who support
my current efforts to unite and consolidate the nation is steadily increasing,"
the presidential candidate stressed.

 

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