Civil Position party leader Anatoliy Hrytsenko who has been nominated to run for president of Ukraine by his party has said he can see opportunity for further unification of opposition politicians, provided that the interests of the country will be placed above their own ambitions.
“We are already forming such a union as a platform, and it is absolutely open to all those who are ready to put the interests of the country above their personal ones. And if this dominates in decision making, I am convinced that sooner or later we will find a winning format, we will form a holistic platform for the presidential and further parliamentary elections,” he told reporters on Jan. 12 after submitting his application with the CEC in response to a question asked by a correspondent of the Kyiv-based Interfax-Ukraine agency.
Hrytsenko said that in the process of unification certain results have already been achieved because such politicians as Yegor Firsov, Viktor Chumak, Mykola Katerynchuk, Mykola Tomenko, and Mustafa Nayem have already abandoned their presidential ambitions for the sake of their common victory.
He said he would continue to be in contact with the inter-faction union of Euro Optimists, with mayor of Lviv Andriy Sadovy, and rockstar and civil activist Sviatoslav Vakarchuk.
“I think this is right, it is in the interests of the country. This is not the time when you can keep quiet or play your own ambitions,” he said.
As earlier reported, on Jan. 11, People’s Deputy of Ukraine Mustafa Nayem called on Samopomich party leader Andriy Sadovy, Civil Position party leader Anatoliy Hrytsenko, and rockstar and civil activist Sviatoslav Vakarchuk to decide for themselves who among the three of them will become a single candidate for the presidential elections in March 2019.
“I would very much like to see a single candidate in these elections who would unite all the efforts. And I am calling on all these three candidates to sit down at a table: please, give us a chance to vote for only one of you,” he said, speaking at a forum of democratic forces in Kyiv on Jan. 11.
In his turn, Sadovy said he is ready for unification of democratic political forces in the parliamentary elections, which are to be held in the fall of 2019.
