In the first session of the new Ukrainian parliament the Opposition Bloc, the political successor to ousted Ukrainian President Viktor Yankovych’s Party of the Regions, set a defiant tone.
“We didn’t participate in the vote on the leadership of the Verkhovna Rada and government on principle because we consider today’s power politics not to be intended to support and protect people but to establish a political dictatorship that will end in nothing good for the country,” said Yuriy Boyko, number one on the Opposition Bloc party list and a former vice prime minister and energy minister under Yanukovych.
The Opposition Bloc is the only party in opposition to the broad five-party coalition that includes all of Ukraine’s pro-Western political parties. They hold 40 seats in the 450 seat body and they constitute a strong voice for eastern Ukraine in the Rada having received the majority of votes in Kharkiv Oblast and well as the Ukrainian controlled parts of the the Donetsk and Luhansk Oblasts.
In comments made on Nov. 27 members of the party made it clear their goal was to distance themselves from Yanukovych while trying to present an appealing alternative to the program outlined in the governing parties coalition agreement.
“I read their whole program it doesn’t say anywhere that we will live well in a month or a year and for 5 or 6 years we will have to tighten (our belts). I don’t see where the international loans are going. They aren’t going into social benefits or production or supporting the hryvnia,” said number 4 on the party list Vadim Rabinovich.
Ukraine’s current dire economic situation requires the Ukrainian government to make unpopular reforms to receive much needed foreign currency loans. As inflation and real energy costs rise in Ukraine as a result of the reforms as the only party not in the coalition the Opposition Bloc is in a unique position to tap into popular discontent regarding the reforms.
Opposition Bloc member of parliament Serhiy Lyovochkin said the party will soon present it own alternative reform program that will allow Ukraine “to rise from its knees.”
For many Ukrainians, however, the strongest association with many from the Opposition Bloc is their support for the so-called dictatorial laws passed on Jan. 16 by the last parliament at the height of the EuroMaidan protests. The laws restricted citizens rights to participate in protests and the media’s ability to cover them.
Some members of the Opposition Bloc, however, present themselves as having no agency in the passing of the law that was subsequently repealed by the interim government.
“I didn’t know what was in the law and that wasn’t uncommon,” said Opposition Bloc member of parliament Yury Miroshnychenko, who was also President Yanukovych’s representative in the last parliament.
