Big Gains for Far Right in Ukraine

[love detective]

Exit polls for yesterday's parliamentary elections in Ukraine are suggesting a huge and unexpected surge for the Far Right Svoboda party.

Despite the presence of Klitschko's new party which was expected to (and did) mop up a huge amount of protest votes, Svoboda have went from picking up 0.76% in the 2007 parliament election to around 12% yesterday based on the latest exist polls. In absolute terms this is an increase from around 178,000 votes in 2007 to around 3 million yesterday and will give them around 30-40 seats in parliament where previously they held none. As late as last week it was looking doubtful as to whether they would even pass the 5% threshold to get any representation at all in parliament.

Also in contrast to most Ukrainian politics which is heavily polarised on a pro-russian east & anti-russian/pro ukranian west basis they seem to have done well across the whole country. Managing a stunning result in Kiev region where they came second overall picking up a quarter of the votes while winning three oblasts (administrative regions) outright in the west where they had previously been gaining strong support in local elections since 2010 (including Lviv region, plus two other neighbouring ones all in the 'polish' western part of ukraine that is close to the border with Poland and Slovakia).

The results in the west are a bit more understandable due to their heavy anti-russian rhetoric which has seen them building up quite a decent support in that area, but that they are managing to extend that to other areas is something new (although I suspect they will never be able to break into the 'real' ukrainian pro-russian east in places like Donetsk, however in 2007 they were picking up the same kind of share of the vote in Donetsk as they were in Kiev region, i.e. next to nothing, yet have now taken a quarter of Kiev)

I was in Ukraine for 6 weeks during the time of the 2007 parliamentary elections and spent time in all three of those western regions that they won yesterday and back then they and the Far Right in general were completely invisible in both constitutional and street politics, likewise in Kiev and even less visible in the pro-russian eastern regions. Politics in general there (in the west) were always dominated quite heavily by 'new' ukrainian nationalism and chauvinistic attitudes but that was provided by the political centre, so this shift to the far right there is even more marked, ditto the increased support for an anti-russian party (in rhetoric at least) in the pro russian east is fairly significant. Economic factors have obviously played a part in this as well, with unemployment tripling , the economy contracting by one of the highest amounts in the world (around 15%) in one year, and the currency devaluing by around 60%. The left meanwhile, like elsewhere, are only noticeable by their absence

Svoboda (which translates as Freedom) are part of the same European grouping that the BNP & Jobik are part off (and that Frances FN have recently left) and over the last decade have went through a de-toxifying phase similar to the BNP (also like Griffin their leader was charged, and cleared of inciting racial hatred), which shows how much bigger the pool to fish in can be without substantially changing the base politics

Logo went from:-

To the much more cuddlier:-

 

[Idris2002]

Is overt anti-semitism a thing with these shitheads? I get the impression it's still more acceptable in Ukraine than other parts of Europe, but that's just going by this one Ukrainian student I had. . .

 

[love detective]

pretty much, but overt anti-semitism is pretty much 'acceptable' across the board, not just 'politically' (at least in a banal/non political/lazy/stereotypical way)

at least that's my experience in places like Poland and Ukraine

Svoboda say Ukraine is ruled by a 'Muscovite-Jewish mafia' which was what led to the leader being charged (and cleared off) incitement of ethnic/racial hatred

They also want to ban communism!

 

[love detective]

Also worth pointing out that the Batkyvshchyna party, the party of the darling of the west, the evil cow bitch Tymoshenko, made an alliance with Svoboda prior to the election agreeing to cooperate in parliament after the election

Western governments were falling over themselves to boycott the Euros in Ukraine earlier this year over her jailing, the idiots

At least Svoboda are 'honest' nationalists, Tymoshenko believes in nothing but herself, she had no problem transforming herself from a Russian/Latvian Dnipropetrovsk clan oligarch who couldn't even speak Ukrainian to a real ukrainian peasant style populist to ride the back of rising western ukrainain nationalism

 

[Captain Hurrah]

How is the memory of Stepan Bandera in Ukraine?

 

[love detective]

Very popular in Galicia

Was posthumously given the 'hero of ukraine' (highest state award possible) a couple of years ago by another darling of the west, Yushchenko

 

[Captain Hurrah]

Been appropriated by far-rightists?

 

[love detective]

i think in those Galician areas pretty much across the board, not just the far right

 

[The39thStep]

8% . Klitschko got elected as well

 

[love detective]

9.62% at the moment based on the official election body results - but the numbers there are just in relation to the 50% of the parliament that is elected on a party list/proportional basis

the other 50% of seats are done on a first past the post/constituency seat basis so those numbers aren't included in the overall vote numbers yet, the results for them are here though

 

[Random]

Interesting to see that the euro-nationalist phenomenon is not something that only happens in "liberal" western democracies, but is also present in countries where the mainstream parties are also free to use extreme nationalism and populism.

 

[love detective]

quite a decent article (at least in factual terms) on opendemocracy.net, looking at, amongst other things, some of the reasons they've done so well. The final point in the quote below is quite interesting

Svoboda’s rise since the early elections in Ternopil oblast has been no accident. The two once allied ‘Orange’ national-democratic parties that finished first and second in the 2006 elections in this oblast – the Bloc of Yulia Tymoshenko (BYuT) and Our Ukraine (OU) – had become bitter enemies by 2009. The rise in support for Svoboda in that year took place at their expense: the BYuT finished fourth, while the OU finished sixth.

This development did not go unnoticed by the ‘anti-Orange’ Party of Regions (PoR). After PoR’s then leader Viktor Yanukovych defeated Yulia Tymoshenko in the second round of the presidential elections in February 2010 and its present leader Mykola Azarov was elected Prime Minister in March that year, Svoboda started enjoying massive promotion on TV channels either directly or indirectly controlled by the government (Inter, First National and Ukraina). The PoR’s calculation was clear: despite Svoboda’s forceful criticism of the government and President, its electoral rise was damaging for the PoR’s main political adversary, Tymoshenko, and her political force (even though support for Svoboda was confined largely to western and central Ukraine, while Tymoshenko was equally popular across the whole country)......


....One reason for Svoboda’s stunning electoral results has been allegedly un-patriotic government policies (for example the adoption of a controversial law granting official status to the Russian language in regions where it is predominantly spoken) that have triggered wider support for the ‘patriotic’ far right. There are, however, at least four other important factors to consider.

Firstly, a large part of the Ukrainian public seems to be fed up with the current political elite. This is a major element in the current success of Vitali Klychko’s Ukrainian Democratic Alliance for Reform (UDAR). The reigning WBC heavyweight boxing champion, Klychko is still a new face in Ukrainian politics, and – in contrast to many members of parliament, both in the PoR-led majority and the opposition – has ‘kept his hands clean’. The same applies to Tyahnybok, who despite two parliamentary terms (1998-2002 and 2002-2006), is also seen as a new face in politics. There is a widespread belief among Ukrainians that new people will bring new policies, and both Tyahnybok’s Svoboda and Klychko’s UDAR have taken advantage of this belief.

Secondly, since the 2007 parliamentary election Svoboda has been in the privileged position of being the only active far-right party in Ukraine. As such, it has become the focus for nationalist and ultranationalist voters whose vote was previously spread among a number of far-right parties or even the moderate nationalist Our Ukraine once led by Viktor Yushchenko. Former leaders of various radical right parties and blocs – for example, Roman Koval, head of the now defunct “State Independence of Ukraine” or Levko Lukyanenko, number one on the National Front electoral bloc list in 1998 – have publicly endorsed Svoboda as virtually the only ‘patriotic’ party. Moreover, Svoboda has managed to appeal to many prominent figures in Ukrainian intellectual and cultural life. Moreover, as well as receiving support from smaller fascist social movements like the Autonomous Resistance or Social-National Assembly, Svoboda has also secured approval from many former members of the Ukrainian Insurgent Army that fought for Ukraine’s independence in 1943-1954. In other words, one far-right party has managed to consolidate the nationalist vote – an unprecedented development in Ukraine.

Thirdly, Svoboda remains one of the most active political groups to take part in street rallies and protests organised around social issues. According to the Centre for Society Research, which monitors protest activities in Ukraine, Svoboda has participated in around one third of all protest rallies in Ukraine since the end of 2011. This strategy has obviously proved its effectiveness in not only increasing the party’s public visibility and helping attract prospective voters, but it has also allowed Svoboda to distract the public’s attention away from its intrinsic ultranationalism, unacceptable to the eastern and southern regions of Ukraine, and towards largely populist slogans on urgent social and cultural problems that might appeal to a wider Ukrainian public.

Fourthly, the 2012 parliamentary election has been notable for the return of ‘ideology’. There has been some kind of consensus among many ostensibly liberal and politically active young Ukrainians that Svoboda is the only major party with a genuine political programme guided by an ideology to which the party’s leaders and activists have a long-standing adherence. Just as they are tired of the current political elite, Ukrainian voters seem to be fed up with the indistinct philosophies of big, catch-all parties such as the PoR and ‘Fatherland’. Paradoxically, several Ukrainian journalists working for allegedly pro-democratic publications have openly articulated their support for Svoboda for this very reason. These journalists claim to reject Svoboda’s racism, but see the fact of its being apparently rooted in ideology as of paramount importance. Hence the unexpected support received by the far right from a large number of liberal and pro-democratic political and social commentators, who have further legitimised Svoboda as an emphatically political organisation worthy of their vote. In the stifling atmosphere of catch-all parties’ obscure positions, the very fact that one party has a well-defined and articulate ideology (no matter what underpins this ideology) has appealed to many Ukrainian voters.

 

[co-op]

Very popular in Galicia

Was posthumously given the 'hero of ukraine' (highest state award possible) a couple of years ago by another darling of the west, Yushchenko

I'd heard that the decision to give him this award was overturned by a court in one of the more russophile regions on the grounds that Bandera wasn't a citizen of the Ukraine SSR so therefore he was ineligible, he must have lived in a Polish ruled area. Presumably this court decision will be ignored/overturned but anyway there's some opposition to his deification.

 

[love detective]

the real (technical) reason for the regional court overturning it, was that the hero of ukraine award was only setup after ukraine became independent and was only intended to be for citizens of the ukrainian state, so the technicality which allowed it to be withdrawn was that it is unlawful for anyone who hasn't lived on the territory of independent ukraine (1991+) to receive it in the first place

 

[co-op]

the real (technical) reason for the regional court overturning it, was that the hero of ukraine award was only setup after ukraine became independent and was only intended to be for citizens of the ukrainian state, so the technicality which allowed it to be withdrawn was that it is unlawful for anyone who hasn't lived on the territory of independent ukraine (1991+) to receive it in the first place

Thanks. I assumed it was a soviet era award. Looks like the court got it right then, I wonder if anyone will care..

 

[love detective]

confirmation that the party of the darling of the west yulia tymoshenko is still planning to officially cooperate with Svoboda in Parliament

 

[wozzakeepsFCUM]

'Scuffles' broke out in Ukrainian parliament again today...

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-20712207

 

[love detective]

50 Svoboda activists yesterday cut down a security fence surrounding parliament, saying parliament should not be separated from the 'people'

Riot police officially retreated under pressure from the group but in reality just stood by and let it happen

 

[love detective]

How is the memory of Stepan Bandera in Ukraine?

Been appropriated by far-rightists?

Svoboda celebrates Bandera's birth anniversary with torchlight procession in Kyiv

is that an anti oligarch message on the banner ghost?

 

[Captain Hurrah]

I guess so, but it is Ukrainian. Red letters is Get', meaning Away! Get lost! Then, antinarodniy and what I would assume is rezhim. Away with this regime that's against the nation/people/?

 

[frogwoman]

yeah i can read "oligarhia"

 

[Captain Hurrah]

Oligarkhiv ...

 

[love detective]

few more pictures here - seems a fairly wide mix of men/woman old/young etc..

 

[love detective]

nice cosy alliance formed between Klitschko's party, Tymoshenko's and Svoboda for the 2015 Presidential elections

That's Klitschko on the right locking hands with the Svoboda leader Tiahnybok and the guy in the middle is the leader of Tymoshenko's party

The three opposition parties will coordinate their actions at all stages of the campaign to elect a new head of state. If the existing procedure of the presidential elections is maintained, each of the three political forces will support the candidate from the one of these forces that wins through to the run-off election," the declaration reads.

If Yanukovych's regime pushes through parliament a law on holding the presidential elections in one round, Batkivschyna, UDAR and Svoboda will agree on a single candidate in the first round of the election.

The three political forces will constantly coordinate the strategy and tactics of the election campaign, and adjust the campaign depending on the changing political situation, according to the declaration.

Fighting with the regime for political, economic and social rights of citizens, Batkivschyna, UDAR and Svoboda will act jointly in parliament and outside it," the politicians said

 

[love detective]

it's amusing to see a load of UK liberal commentators cheering on a 'revolution' in Ukraine which is somewhat dominated by the far right and others who have spent the last few years in political alliances with the far right

Every picture i've seen of the protests so far have either prominently featured a load of Svoboda flags or the red & black blood & soil flag beloved of the Ukrainian far right

Also there is a lot of talk & glee about Kiev city hall being seized by demonstrators to setup a 'revolution headquarters' - what no one mentioned or seems to care about is that this action was an entirely Svoboda run action

 

[Delroy Booth]

it's amusing to see a load of UK liberal commentators cheering on a 'revolution' in Ukraine which is somewhat dominated by the far right and others who have spent the last few years in political alliances with the far right

so what do you think of this effort in the Guardian http://www.theguardian.com/commenti...imistic-young-ukrainians-europe-russian-power

I read on the bbc that the protestors had tried to pull down a statue of lenin and attacked a government run trade union building, and one of the pictures is of 3 Svoboda activists standing in front of a Scoboda flag giving their 3-fingered salute in balaclavas.

So are the western media ignoring the role of Svoboda in this because they're too used to portraying it as a West - Russia power struggle? Is it ignorance of what's going on there or is it deliberate framing?

It's a bit unusual to British eyes to see far-right nationalists flying flags alongside the EU, but of course it's different in the eastern bloc. I suppose anti-Russian and anti-Communist sentiment on the Ukrainian far-right must overlap significantly.

 

[love detective]

so what do you think of this effort in the Guardian http://www.theguardian.com/commenti...imistic-young-ukrainians-europe-russian-power

Just seems the same as all the other weak wishy washy idealist witterings - the most useful bit was the part about combatting the myth of Tymoshenko - however that reads a little bit like a straight lift of the criticisms made of her here and elswhere over the years (and therefore a bit out of synch with the style of the overall article)

I read on the bbc that the protestors had tried to pull down a statue of lenin and attacked a government run trade union building, and one of the pictures is of 3 Svoboda activists standing in front of a Scoboda flag giving their 3-fingered salute in balaclavas.

So are the western media ignoring the role of Svoboda in this because they're too used to portraying it as a West - Russia power struggle? Is it ignorance of what's going on there or is it deliberate framing?

It's a bit unusual to British eyes to see far-right nationalists flying flags alongside the EU, but of course it's different in the eastern bloc. I suppose anti-Russian and anti-Communist sentiment on the Ukrainian far-right must overlap significantly.

I'd say it's more down to liberal willful ignorance than deliberate and calculated framing - the introduction of a far right element being structurally involved in what are nominally pro-eu demonstrations is just far too inconceivable to fit into the nice binary pieces that they prefer to pump out.

I mean over the last couple of years as Svobada has been on the up, there's not been a peep of criticism of the likes of Klitschko or Tymoshenko's party forming political alliances and sharing platforms with the far right, instead we get the usual personality driven profiles of him or her as western friendly photogenic types while the inconvenient politics are brushed aside or not even picked up on. There is already a baddy in the shape of Yanukovych, so by definition anyone who is against him must be a goody - even if they are fascists, or share platforms & political alliances with fascists

 

[love detective]

This quote below from here shows just how embedded Svoboda is in terms of the top down organising of the protests (Batkivschyna is Tymoshenko's party and UDAR Klitschko's)

The Ukrainian opposition parties of Batkivschyna, the Svoboda Party, and the Ukrainian Democratic Alliance for Reform of Vitali Klitschko say their actions on Independence Square in Kyiv are absolutely legal.

Svoboda Party leader Oleh Tiahnybok gave the position at a press conference at the House of Trade Unions in Kyiv.

 

[Idris2002]

.

 

[love detective]

autonomous administrations, dual power structures, what's not to like

The leader of Ukraine's opposition party Svoboda, Oleh Tiahnybok, has announced that the opposition is starting to form an autonomous government in the country's capital, Kyiv.

"Starting from tomorrow [Friday], we will form an independent administration in Kyiv - Kyiv's self-government," Tiahnybok said at a pro-EU rally in the capital's Independence Square on Thursday.

The demonstrators supported the opposition leader's idea.

https://www.kyivpost.com/content/uk...ng-kyiv-self-government-on-friday-333128.html