Wednesday, October 31, 2012 12:34:41 AM
Ukrainian far-right surges in protest voting
By Olzhas Auyezov
KIEV | Mon Oct 29, 2012 12:43pm EDT
KIEV (Reuters) - A Ukrainian nationalist party accused of being anti-Semitic and hostile to homosexuals has made sharp gains in the country's parliamentary election, shaking up its political elite.
Svoboda, which draws on suspicion of Russia and of Ukraine's large Russian-speaking minority, was winning about 9 percent of the ballot in early returns on Monday, though many saw its surge into parliament as more of a protest vote against the government and main opposition rather than an endorsement of its policies.
Allied in Europe with France's National Front, the British National Party and Hungary's Jobbik among others, Svoboda, whose name means Freedom, may take some 33 of parliament's 450 seats; having never previously held more than one, it will now be one of three main parties opposing President Viktor Yanukovich.
The movement, previously known by the Nazi-inflected title the Social-National Party, denies hostility to Jews, though its present leader, Oleh Tyahnybok, was once expelled from a mainstream parliamentary grouping after denouncing a previous Ukrainian government as a "mafia of Russians and Yids".
A 43-year-old urogenital surgeon, Tyahnybok hails from Lviv, the western heartland of Ukrainian nationalism during Soviet times and a stronghold today of opposition to the influence of Russian-speaking easterners - like President Yanukovich.
The rise of his party, which has criticized campaigns for gay rights and honors nationalist partisans who allied with Hitler's forces against the Red Army in World War Two, was apparently propelled by last-minute decisions among some voters.
"Svoboda was the biggest surprise," said political analyst Volodymyr Fesenko, noting that opinion polls taken as late as last week had forecast it might not secure the five percent of the national vote required to be represented in parliament.
"Many people decided to vote for Svoboda in the last few days," Fesenko said. "It was protest voting, not a vote for Ukrainian nationalism."
That seemed to be borne out by some of those who voted.
Dmytro Yakovenko, a 28-year-old journalist, said he opted for Svoboda out of frustration with the ruling Party of the Regions and its communist allies: "I wanted to swing the vote away from the communists and the Regions," he said in Kiev.
Yanukovich's party is nonetheless set fair to retain power.
Iryna Sorokun, 67, a pensioner, said of Svoboda: "They seem to be decent people and they have never been in parliament or government, so I thought I should give them a chance."
Svoboda, which follows other right-wing populist parties in making gains in Europe during the financial and economic crisis, also benefited from the Regions' efforts this year to enact a law bolstering the official status of the Russian language.
UNEASY OPPOSITION ALLIANCE
Svoboda's agenda includes limiting the number of government ministers who are not "ethnic Ukrainians" - a term that might affect notably ethnic Russians, who account for a sixth of the population, as well as Tatars, Jews and other small minorities.
One Svoboda activist famously campaigned successfully to have a bus driver in Lviv dismissed from his job after he refused to stop playing Russian-language songs on his route.
The party wants to ban abortion and, while Tyahnybok has been quoted as saying sexual orientation is "everyone's personal business", Svoboda has made clear it opposes gay rights and has demanded a ban on the "propaganda of sexual perversions".
The party leader denies it has ever been anti-Semitic. But it has held rallies calling for limits on Jewish pilgrimages to the grave of an 18th-century Hassidic rabbi in the city of Uman.
Some other opponents of Yanukovich have kept their distance: "It is hard to agree with some things that smell like the far right," said Vitaly Klitschko, a heavyweight boxing champion who leads the liberal party UDAR. "We won't support extremism."
However, the main united opposition bloc which includes the Batkivshchyna (Fatherland) party of Yanukovich's jailed adversary Yulia Tymoshenko, struck an alliance with Svoboda before the election to cooperate in parliament after the vote.
(Additional reporting by Pavel Polityuk in Kiev and Paul Taylor in Paris; Editing by Timothy Heritage, Richard Balmforth and Alastair Macdonald)
Copyright 2012 Reuters
http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/10/29/us-ukraine-election-nationalists-idUSBRE89S0T120121029 [with comments]
--
Rising Ukrainian nationalist party denies it is anti-Semitic
Leader of Svoboda (Freedom) party Oleh Tyagnybok during celebration marking the 70th anniversary of the formation of the UPA ('Ukrayins’ka Povstans’ka Armiya'), in Kiev, October 14, 2012.
Photo by AFP
The leader of Svoboda, which won 9 percent of the votes for parliament, rejects claims that his party hates foreigners: ‘There could be nationalistic parties in Israel as well.’
Eli Shvidler | Oct.30, 2012 | 5:50 PM
The Jewish community in Ukraine reacted fiercely to the unprecedented achievement of the nationalist anti-Semitic Svoboda (Freedom) party in Sunday’s parliamentary elections in Ukraine, in which the party won more than 9 percent of the votes [ http://www.haaretz.com/news/world/anti-semitic-party-wins-12-of-seats-in-ukraine-parliament.premium-1.472792 ].
“This is a party of the devil,” one of the community’s key leaders said. “We never believed they would be openly represented in the parliament. We will fight them with all legal means. They constitute a danger not only to Jews, but to all Ukrainians.”
Nonetheless, Svoboda’s leader, Oleh Tyahnybok, insisted that his party is not anti-Semitic, nor does it hate foreigners. “There might be nationalistic parties in Israel as well,” he said, noting that he expects no interference in Ukraine’s domestic affairs.
Tyahnybok, a charismatic 43-year-old who studied medicine and law, holds outspoken anti-Semitic views and, like most of his party’s members, does not limit his antipathy to Jews. He was elected to parliament in 2002 as part of former president Viktor Yushchenko’s bloc, but was expelled from the party in 2004 due to anti-Semitic and xenophobic statements.
In one of his speeches, Tyahnybok said: “Our freedom fighters took submachine guns and left for the forests. They fought the Muskals [Russians], the Yids and all the other filth that wanted to take away our homeland.” He added that he will fight the “Russian-Jewish mafia in power in Ukraine.”
One of Svoboda’s senior members, Iryna Farion, once offered to “send to jail, if only for six months, these five million people claiming to be Ukrainians but who don’t speak our language” – meaning the Russian-speaking residents of Eastern Ukraine. Svoboda enthusiastically supported former president Yushchenko’s decision to posthumously award the title “Hero of Ukraine” to Stepan Bandera and Roman Shukhevych, a title that was later rescinded by the Ukrainian courts. Bandera and Shukhevych were leaders of the Ukrainian Insurgent Army during World War II and were considered responsible for the deaths of tens of thousands of Jews, Russians and Poles, and of cooperation with Nazi Germany against the Russian Red Army on the eastern front.
Members of Knesset Alex Miller (Yisrael Beiteinu) and Yuval Zellner (Kadima) served as international observers of the Ukrainian elections. Miller, chairman of the Israel-Ukraine parliamentary friendship association, said that “the strengthening of the extreme right in Ukraine is very worrying, and might lead to a rise in anti-Semitism.” Miller expressed hope that Svoboda would not be part of any future coalition: “The government of Ukraine should be an example to all countries around the world and prevent any legitimization of extremist voices.”
Pundits on Ukrainian TV believe that Svoboda’s success is part of the protest against President Viktor Yanukovych. The ultranationalist party received between 30-38 percent of the votes in the western parts of Ukraine – often more than the larger parties – but hardly won any votes in the Russian-speaking parts of eastern Ukraine.
Copyright 2012 Haaretz
http://www.haaretz.com/jewish-world/jewish-world-news/rising-ukrainian-nationalist-party-denies-it-is-anti-semitic.premium-1.473302 [no comments yet]
--
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By Olzhas Auyezov
KIEV | Mon Oct 29, 2012 12:43pm EDT
KIEV (Reuters) - A Ukrainian nationalist party accused of being anti-Semitic and hostile to homosexuals has made sharp gains in the country's parliamentary election, shaking up its political elite.
Svoboda, which draws on suspicion of Russia and of Ukraine's large Russian-speaking minority, was winning about 9 percent of the ballot in early returns on Monday, though many saw its surge into parliament as more of a protest vote against the government and main opposition rather than an endorsement of its policies.
Allied in Europe with France's National Front, the British National Party and Hungary's Jobbik among others, Svoboda, whose name means Freedom, may take some 33 of parliament's 450 seats; having never previously held more than one, it will now be one of three main parties opposing President Viktor Yanukovich.
The movement, previously known by the Nazi-inflected title the Social-National Party, denies hostility to Jews, though its present leader, Oleh Tyahnybok, was once expelled from a mainstream parliamentary grouping after denouncing a previous Ukrainian government as a "mafia of Russians and Yids".
A 43-year-old urogenital surgeon, Tyahnybok hails from Lviv, the western heartland of Ukrainian nationalism during Soviet times and a stronghold today of opposition to the influence of Russian-speaking easterners - like President Yanukovich.
The rise of his party, which has criticized campaigns for gay rights and honors nationalist partisans who allied with Hitler's forces against the Red Army in World War Two, was apparently propelled by last-minute decisions among some voters.
"Svoboda was the biggest surprise," said political analyst Volodymyr Fesenko, noting that opinion polls taken as late as last week had forecast it might not secure the five percent of the national vote required to be represented in parliament.
"Many people decided to vote for Svoboda in the last few days," Fesenko said. "It was protest voting, not a vote for Ukrainian nationalism."
That seemed to be borne out by some of those who voted.
Dmytro Yakovenko, a 28-year-old journalist, said he opted for Svoboda out of frustration with the ruling Party of the Regions and its communist allies: "I wanted to swing the vote away from the communists and the Regions," he said in Kiev.
Yanukovich's party is nonetheless set fair to retain power.
Iryna Sorokun, 67, a pensioner, said of Svoboda: "They seem to be decent people and they have never been in parliament or government, so I thought I should give them a chance."
Svoboda, which follows other right-wing populist parties in making gains in Europe during the financial and economic crisis, also benefited from the Regions' efforts this year to enact a law bolstering the official status of the Russian language.
UNEASY OPPOSITION ALLIANCE
Svoboda's agenda includes limiting the number of government ministers who are not "ethnic Ukrainians" - a term that might affect notably ethnic Russians, who account for a sixth of the population, as well as Tatars, Jews and other small minorities.
One Svoboda activist famously campaigned successfully to have a bus driver in Lviv dismissed from his job after he refused to stop playing Russian-language songs on his route.
The party wants to ban abortion and, while Tyahnybok has been quoted as saying sexual orientation is "everyone's personal business", Svoboda has made clear it opposes gay rights and has demanded a ban on the "propaganda of sexual perversions".
The party leader denies it has ever been anti-Semitic. But it has held rallies calling for limits on Jewish pilgrimages to the grave of an 18th-century Hassidic rabbi in the city of Uman.
Some other opponents of Yanukovich have kept their distance: "It is hard to agree with some things that smell like the far right," said Vitaly Klitschko, a heavyweight boxing champion who leads the liberal party UDAR. "We won't support extremism."
However, the main united opposition bloc which includes the Batkivshchyna (Fatherland) party of Yanukovich's jailed adversary Yulia Tymoshenko, struck an alliance with Svoboda before the election to cooperate in parliament after the vote.
(Additional reporting by Pavel Polityuk in Kiev and Paul Taylor in Paris; Editing by Timothy Heritage, Richard Balmforth and Alastair Macdonald)
Copyright 2012 Reuters
http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/10/29/us-ukraine-election-nationalists-idUSBRE89S0T120121029 [with comments]
--
Rising Ukrainian nationalist party denies it is anti-Semitic
Leader of Svoboda (Freedom) party Oleh Tyagnybok during celebration marking the 70th anniversary of the formation of the UPA ('Ukrayins’ka Povstans’ka Armiya'), in Kiev, October 14, 2012.
Photo by AFP
The leader of Svoboda, which won 9 percent of the votes for parliament, rejects claims that his party hates foreigners: ‘There could be nationalistic parties in Israel as well.’
Eli Shvidler | Oct.30, 2012 | 5:50 PM
The Jewish community in Ukraine reacted fiercely to the unprecedented achievement of the nationalist anti-Semitic Svoboda (Freedom) party in Sunday’s parliamentary elections in Ukraine, in which the party won more than 9 percent of the votes [ http://www.haaretz.com/news/world/anti-semitic-party-wins-12-of-seats-in-ukraine-parliament.premium-1.472792 ].
“This is a party of the devil,” one of the community’s key leaders said. “We never believed they would be openly represented in the parliament. We will fight them with all legal means. They constitute a danger not only to Jews, but to all Ukrainians.”
Nonetheless, Svoboda’s leader, Oleh Tyahnybok, insisted that his party is not anti-Semitic, nor does it hate foreigners. “There might be nationalistic parties in Israel as well,” he said, noting that he expects no interference in Ukraine’s domestic affairs.
Tyahnybok, a charismatic 43-year-old who studied medicine and law, holds outspoken anti-Semitic views and, like most of his party’s members, does not limit his antipathy to Jews. He was elected to parliament in 2002 as part of former president Viktor Yushchenko’s bloc, but was expelled from the party in 2004 due to anti-Semitic and xenophobic statements.
In one of his speeches, Tyahnybok said: “Our freedom fighters took submachine guns and left for the forests. They fought the Muskals [Russians], the Yids and all the other filth that wanted to take away our homeland.” He added that he will fight the “Russian-Jewish mafia in power in Ukraine.”
One of Svoboda’s senior members, Iryna Farion, once offered to “send to jail, if only for six months, these five million people claiming to be Ukrainians but who don’t speak our language” – meaning the Russian-speaking residents of Eastern Ukraine. Svoboda enthusiastically supported former president Yushchenko’s decision to posthumously award the title “Hero of Ukraine” to Stepan Bandera and Roman Shukhevych, a title that was later rescinded by the Ukrainian courts. Bandera and Shukhevych were leaders of the Ukrainian Insurgent Army during World War II and were considered responsible for the deaths of tens of thousands of Jews, Russians and Poles, and of cooperation with Nazi Germany against the Russian Red Army on the eastern front.
Members of Knesset Alex Miller (Yisrael Beiteinu) and Yuval Zellner (Kadima) served as international observers of the Ukrainian elections. Miller, chairman of the Israel-Ukraine parliamentary friendship association, said that “the strengthening of the extreme right in Ukraine is very worrying, and might lead to a rise in anti-Semitism.” Miller expressed hope that Svoboda would not be part of any future coalition: “The government of Ukraine should be an example to all countries around the world and prevent any legitimization of extremist voices.”
Pundits on Ukrainian TV believe that Svoboda’s success is part of the protest against President Viktor Yanukovych. The ultranationalist party received between 30-38 percent of the votes in the western parts of Ukraine – often more than the larger parties – but hardly won any votes in the Russian-speaking parts of eastern Ukraine.
Copyright 2012 Haaretz
http://www.haaretz.com/jewish-world/jewish-world-news/rising-ukrainian-nationalist-party-denies-it-is-anti-semitic.premium-1.473302 [no comments yet]
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