The Solidarnist party was renamed into the Petro Poroshenko Bloc

Petro Poroshenko put on Yuri Lutsenko responsibility for the success of the eponymous bloc in elections

Photo: Ivan Chernichkin

The Solidarnist party held its congress yesterday in Kyiv during which it elected its new leader. The party promises that 80% of its candidates in the upcoming elections to the Verkhovna Rada will represent the new generation of politicians. Nevertheless, yesterday’s congress demonstrated that the president’s party is still going along the traditional path of parties of power.

Time for a name change

During preparations for the congress of Solidarnist it was labeled the “congress of rebirth”. The fact is that over the 13 years of its existence the party did not run in the parliamentary elections even once and over the past several years did not participate in election campaigns. This resulted in the Ministry of Justice cancelling the party’s registration in the end of last year and the current President Petro Poroshenko was forced to create a new project.

However, in the upcoming early elections to the VR voters will not see the Solidarnist party on the voting ballots. The main subject of talks in the corridors of delegates of the congress prior to its opening was the change of the party’s name. Leader of the Kyiv city organization of the party Ihor Kononenko told Capital that this idea was devised by regional organizations of Solidarnist. “Two variants of its name are being debated – Solidarnist of Petro Poroshenko and the Petro Poroshenko Bloc. There is already president’s consent for the use of his name certified by a notary public,” said Kononenko.

In the end, Yuriy Lutsenko proposed to the delegates renaming the party the Petro Poroshenko Bloc. Prior to that he was elected the new head of the party replacing Yuriy Stets (Batkivshchyna), who tendered his resignation. “Today there are two fronts in the country – internal one involving criminal officials and oligarchs and external one, where the children of Genghis Khan are killing the European future of Ukraine. We need unity on two fronts. For this reason, I propose renaming the Solidarnist party into the Petro Poroshenko Bloc and invite Batkivshchyna, UDAR and the Front of Change to cooperation,” said Lutsenko.
Immediately after the delegates approved the rebranding of the party, its founder Petro Poroshenko entered the session hall. Even before the congress its organizers assured Capital that Poroshenko would be proposed the post of honorary chairman of the party, though this matter was not considered. The president himself began his address with compliments to Lutsenko and then spoke about unification. He called on all democratic forces to unite in the coalition for the parliamentary elections. “It is desirable that they win by uniting the Petro Poroshenko Bloc and all democratic forces in the elections. If somebody is unhappy with such a format of our pre-election model, a declaration must be signed today on joining into the coalition after victory in the parliamentary elections,” said Poroshenko.

Never ending congress 

After the congress Yuriy Stets, who ceded the post of the party leader to Lutsenko, told Capital on what conditions the unification of democratic can take place. He said that for this the members of other parties will have to change their party registration. “Candidates will run as members of the Petro Poroshenko Bloc. We are still discussing the electoral list and candidates in the constituencies, though I can promise that 80% of them will be new faces,” said Stets. Moreover, the party is holding talks on joint participation in the elections with the UDAR and Batkivshchyna parties and Premier Arseniy Yatsenyuk.

People’s deputy Andriy Pavelko (independent), who heads the president’s party in the Dnipropetrovsk oblast, told Capital that in the upcoming parliamentary elections the same structure will be used as in the latest presidential elections. “The structure of the presidential election headquarters was preserved and today is ready for the next elections. Today, we are agreeing to the candidates of the majoritarian constituencies in the regions with UDAR, Batkivshchyna and the team of Ihor Kolomoiskiy,” said Pavelko. He predicts that the talks on forming the electoral list and nominating first-past-the-post candidates will soon be wrapped up.

It cannot be ruled out that former members of the Party of Regions will run in the elections with Solidarnist. For instance, Chairman of the Odesa Oblast Council Oleksiy Honcharenko, who jumped ship from the Party of Regions during the demonstrations on Maidan, was one of the delegates of the congress representing the presidential forces. Today, he heads the oblast organization of Solidarnist.

Yuriy Lutsenko does not see anything dishonorable about Honcharenko’s membership.

“Honcharenko had his opinion in the Party of Regions, just as I did in the Socialist Party in my time. He proved his right to be in politics during the conflict,” said the leader of the Solidarnist party. However, according to information that Capital possesses, today the Petro Poroshenko Bloc is considering the possibility of supporting several majoritarian deputies that abandoned the Party of Regions faction in the VR not so long ago.

Yesterday, the delegates of the congress of the Petro Poroshenko Bloc decided not to close it so that it can continue its work at any moment.