Party of Regions

The Party of Regions (PR ) is a political party in Ukraine. She set between 25 February 2010 and 22 February 2014 the President of Ukraine Viktor Yanukovych.

History

The Party of Regions was first established in 1997 under the name "party of regional rebirth of Ukraine". It was officially registered only in 2000 and gave up after the merger with four other parties in 2001 its present name. Originally, the PR supported the President Leonid Kuchma and joined the pro-government electoral bloc For a United Ukraine in the parliamentary elections in 2002. Party chairman was from December 2001 to February 2010 Viktor Yanukovych, since clothed Mykola Azarov this office. The potential voters of the party was always predominantly in the east and in the south of Ukraine. Thus, the PR achieved in the Donetsk Oblast in the parliamentary elections in October 2012 over 65 % of the vote and in the neighboring Luhansk Oblast 57%. Your worst election results they achieved, however, in the western Ukrainian oblasts with Ternopil and Ivano-Frankivsk 6.4% to 5.2 % of the vote. The Party of Regions has been and is often accused of representing the interests of the oligarchs of eastern Ukrainian industrial area, such as Rinat Akhmetov of.

For the 2004 presidential election, the PR nominated for the first time Viktor Yanukovych as a candidate and was a left -wing populist orientation, to win all the voters of the Communist Party its political program. The Party of Regions also announced that in the event of their election victory to raise the Russian language the second official language of the country to seek a federal structure and to lean foreign policy more clearly to Russia. There are close contacts between the PR and the Russian governance. So there is a contract-based relationship with the ruling party, United Russia.

After the so-called Orange Revolution and the defeat of their presidential candidate against Yanukovych Viktor Yushchenko in the run-off election on 26 December 2004, the party joined the opposition.

In the parliamentary elections in March 2006, the Party of Regions was surprisingly the most powerful force with 32.12 % and won 186 of the 450 seats in the Verkhovna Rada. After the failure of formation of a " coalition oranges " and the change of socialists to the side of the Party of Regions, it formed with the Socialists and the Communists a coalition. Although the PR spoke out in contrast to the Western-oriented parties against NATO membership for Ukraine, but it supported EU membership of the country. She moved thus on its foreign policy orientation towards Russia.

In the early parliamentary elections in 2007, however, the PR has maintained its position as the strongest force in parliament, reaching 34.37 % even more votes than in 2006. Block of Yulia Tymoshenko and the electoral alliance Our ​​Ukraine / National self-defense, the two main opponents of PR reached, together a brief parliamentary majority as the former coalition partner of the PR, the Socialist Party, narrowly failed at the three- percent threshold. After the election, the then President Yushchenko called, given the narrow majority of the " orange " camp on to participate in the Party of Regions to form a government. Nevertheless, a government was formed without the PR.

In the following years the PR in Parliament followed largely a blockade tactics. Thus, the election of a new President of Parliament and a new government has been delayed. Deputies of the PR and the Communists blocked repeatedly Parliament Bureau in the boardroom of the Verkhovna Rada, thus preventing debates and votes. After the election, the government took the party in early 2008, the public commitment of the President of Parliament for NATO membership of Ukraine as an opportunity to once again sabotage the work of Parliament, making them temporarily came to a halt. This blockade policy also came in his own party to criticism.

After the 2010 presidential election

Yanukovych ran in the presidential elections in January 2010, again as a candidate of the PR and won the runoff election on 7 February 2010.

On March 17, 2012, the party "Strong Ukraine" the Party of Regions joined.

Yanukovych was dated 25 February 2010 to February 22, 2014 President of Ukraine, until it was declared by the Parliament for discontinued (see Euromaidan ). In the parliamentary elections in 2012, the PR reached 30.00% of the vote. They thus had 187 seats in the Verkhovna Rada.

After the revolution in Ukraine 2014

After designated by Yanukovych as a " coup d'etat " revolution in Ukraine in 2014 left 72 deputies of the PR Parlementsfraktion. Oleksandr Yefremov faction leader Yanukovych called a "traitor"

After the Crimean referendum and the onset of the pro-Russian protests in Ukraine in early 2014 Oleh Zarjow called on March 17, to calm the situation, a large degree of autonomy of the eastern parts of the country and called for an amendment to the Constitution of Ukraine towards a federal system. Condition for a government of national unity was the withdrawal of the language law adopted by parliament after the revolution in February. MPs from the Party of Regions accused of being responsible for the loss of the Crimea, the new leadership of the country. The Rada deputy Irina Gorina Parliament called on 20 March to to recognize that the revolution in Kiev have frightened the population of the Crimea and campaigned for the other Members for it to focus their attention on the pro-Russian population of the country. Arseniy Yatsenyuk she accused to have begun on March 18, to speak to the south and east of the country " in a human language." His promise not to ban the Russian language and to grant more autonomy to the regions had to come much earlier.

On March 28, 2014 Yanukovych declared his resignation from the party.

On March 29, Mykhailo Dobkin was nominated at a party congress in Kiev for the presidential candidate of the Party of Regions; other candidates for the nomination were Yuriy Boyko, Serhiy Tihipko and Oleh Zarjow. Dobkin is in favor of that the governors of the regions democratically elected and are not to be determined by the President and also advocates the transformation of Ukraine into a federal one. The congress also decided to exclude Yanukovych, the former Prime Minister Mykola Azarov and Serhiy Arbuzov, as well as other associated with the term Yanukovych politicians.

Politician

Important representatives of the PR are:

  • Serhiy Tihipko, entrepreneurs
  • Mykhailo Dobkin, in March 2014 Governor of Kharkiv Oblast, candidate of the party in the presidential elections in 2014, in May 2014
  • Yuriy Boyko
  • Oleh Zarjow
  • Oleksandr Yefremov
  • Rinat Akhmetov, entrepreneurs
  • Andrij Kliuev, former First Deputy Prime Minister, former Secretary of National Security and Defence Council of Ukraine
  • Oleksandr Wilkul, former vice president of Ukraine

Former members:

  • Viktor Yanukovych, former Prime Minister and former President of Ukraine
  • Rajisa Bohatyrjowa, former secretary of the National Security and Defence Council of Ukraine, former president
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