Will Green Army Take Orders From Commander-In-Chief?

It seems that for the Greens it is more important than ever to show that they are also in line, and have everything what the boys next door do: their own regional mutiny, dissenters, and even internal opposition. Otherwise, God forbid, you might become an object of a sociological study into the rating of such a "self-sustainable and ideological party as the PZU". And although Vitaly Kononov greatly hoped that the Council's session would not go as far as discussing the issue of a presidential candidate, party cochairman Yuri Samoilenko had said before the event that the PZU intends to nominate Mr. Kononov.

Although Vitaly Kononov mentioned to The Day that the position of his party with regard to the presidential elections remains unchanged, that is "we consider the 1999 elections as a prelude to the parliamentary elections and, will shape an position on this basis," it is already obvious that the Greens will not be able to sit out the October elections quietly under the environmental umbrella, as their party ideologists would like. Hence, they have to simulate a fight with the lower strata (though 16 out of 17 regions have reported to date their allegiance to the party line), only necessary for a statement that "the activity of some of the party members is not only an ill thought out step, but an action provoked by one of the presidential candidates." This should be followed by a no less resounding process of cleaning the Greens' furrows of ideological weeds, which will obviously be very painful for the party chairman and his allies. Mr. Kononov has admitted that the "expelling of the dissidents, who shifted to other factions, from the party and the faction, is the first such disciplinary step in a democratic party." According to Kononov, such "rigidity shows that the PZU is in the process of transition from a guerrilla party to a party with statutory requirements." Incidentally, we already know a party with "rigid statutory requirements", the SDPU(u) (United Social Democratic Party of Ukraine), which achieved such rare unity on the issue of support for a presidential candidate only after thoroughly sifting through the disagreeable. Evidently, the same Zeitgeist like that of the Social Democrats', has compelled the PZU to amend its charter and program in order to regulate the relations between the party's lower and higher strata.

It is remarkable that Chair of the Verkhovna Rada Committee for Environmental Issues Samoilenko stressed that he "would by no means exaggerate the role of Natalia Vitrenko in the now discernible schism in the PZU after the expulsion of Chairman of the Kyiv Greens Organization Orest Melnykov from the party and faction." It is difficult to say whether Mr. Samoilenko has really perceived Ms. Vitrenko's hand in the matter or just pretends to, but one cannot fail to notice that it is the Presidential Administration which plays with the Greens according to a scenario previously tested on other political forces. Vitaly Kononov, vigorously resisting his nominating a candidate, had to admit that "we have to play the game everyone around us is playing." Perhaps, this explains the probable delegating of Volodymyr Yelchaninov (who is, incidentally, a former deputy director of the GI-Broker Co.) to reinforce the PSPU faction. The choice of the "victim" from among the business partners of the Real Group headed by Khmelnytsky, is far from being accidental. Essentially, this means that the complaints that "the deputy business is getting unprofitable for us" expressed by some Greens in the parliamentary corridors have been obviously overheard by the authorities, who are relentlessly squeezing required decisions from the lawmaking businessmen, and the party ideologists, no matter how painful it may be, have to follow the businessmen and crawl under the regime. This is the course of events the party leader envisiages when he says that "if a party congress nominates me, I will think about it. Because a presidential candidate should meet the expectations not only of the Greens, but of the whole people. As far as support to Leonid Kuchma is concerned, I am a party soldier and will do what the party tells me."