Yulia Tymoshenko Bloc

It was originally created to participate in elections to the Verkhovna Rada in 2002 , where it received 7.26% of the vote (21 out of 450 seats) ^[3] and formed an independent faction by the results of the elections.

The initial composition of the unit:

• All-Ukrainian Association "Batkivshchyna"
• Ukrainian Republican Party "Cathedral"
• Ukrainian Social Democratic Party

BYuT became one of the main political forces during the Orange Revolution in Ukraine in 2004 . His representatives were part of the government of Yulia Tymoshenko (February - September 2005), but mostly left him after her resignation.

On November 27, 2005 , a BYuT election congress was held on the eve of parliamentary elections (March 2006) . The head of the election headquarters, former head of the Ukrainian Security Service Oleksandr Turchynov , announced that the name of the bloc remains the same, but only Batkivshchyna and the Ukrainian Social Democratic Party are ready to enter it.

The Sobor Party, led by Anatoly Matvienko, joined Viktor Yushchenko ’s bloc ( Our Ukraine People’s Union ).

The BYuT negotiations with the party “ Reforms and Order ” (PRP) of Viktor Pinzenik did not lead to anything, especially since Pinzenik was Finance Minister in the government of Yuriy Yekhanurov . Consensus was reached only a year later, after the elections - on October 20, 2006 the PDP became part of the BYuT.

In the elections, the bloc was second only to the Party of Regions , gaining 22.29% (5,652,876) of votes, and received 129 of 450 seats in parliament ^[4] .

The BYuT received the maximum support in the Kiev region (44.54%). Good results were obtained in Sumy , Uman , Khmelnitsky , Lutsk and Kiev - mainly in Central and Northern Ukraine, in Volyn . Minimal support in the Donbass: Donetsk region - 2.47%. Read more here .

The first three months that passed after the parliamentary elections, went to the creation of the "orange" government coalition. The rapid agreement was hampered by the claims of Yulia Tymoshenko for the post of prime minister and Oleksandr Moroz for the post of speaker of the Verkhovna Rada . Finally, on June 22, 2006 , the results of the negotiations of the three political forces that were included in the coalition and the distribution of key posts among them were officially announced. The "Orange" coalition includes BYuT, People’s Union "Our Ukraine" and SPU .

The Yulia Tymoshenko Bloc received the post of prime minister, full control over the economic bloc of the government, as well as the posts of heads of the Naftogaz of Ukraine NJSC, the State Property Fund and the State Committee on Television and Radio Broadcasting, the tax administration, and the state treasury.

All the leadership positions in the Verkhovna Rada were distributed among the coalition members.

However, the Party of Regions and the Communist Party of Ukraine , which did not receive any leading position, resorted to blocking the Rada meeting hall in order to prevent a “package” vote on the candidacies of the Prime Minister and the Chairman of the Verkhovna Rada, which, according to the Orange Coalition, was supposed to consolidate the achieved interparty agreements.

After some time, the members of the Orange Coalition, under pressure from President Viktor Yushchenko, were forced to negotiate with the opposition to achieve some kind of compromise. Only by July 6, 2006, a compromise agreement was reached, however, during the nomination of candidates for the post of chairman of the Verkhovna Rada, Alexander Moroz unexpectedly violated the agreement, put forward his candidacy and won the victory. The factions of Our Ukraine and the Yulia Tymoshenko Bloc refused to participate in the elections of the speaker, accusing Moroz of “betrayal” and the collapse of the coalition.

On July 7, 2006, an agreement was signed to create a new, “anti-crisis” coalition of the parliamentary majority, which included the Party of Regions , the Socialist Party of Ukraine and the Communist Party of Ukraine . Alexander Moroz withdrew his signature on the agreement on the creation of the "orange" coalition, which, thus, ceased to exist, not having lasted even two weeks. The first step of the new bloc was the nomination of Viktor Yanukovych ’s candidacy for the post of prime minister. Yulia Tymoshenko demanded that President Viktor Yushchenko dissolve the Verkhovna Rada. Yushchenko also called for the formation of a so-called broad coalition with the participation of Our Ukraine.

Throughout July, Viktor Yushchenko refuses to nominate one of his main political opponents, Viktor Yanukovych, for the post of prime minister — in addition, Yushchenko is not satisfied that his Our Ukraine party will not be represented in the government coalition in this way. In the end, the president invites all parliamentary parties to sign the Universal of National Unity , a document that would enshrine the principles of the new government. On August 3, the solemn signing of the Universal of National Unity took place. The wagon was signed by the leaders of all parliamentary factions, except Yulia Tymoshenko.

In the Verkhovna Rada, representatives of the BYuT headed the committees:

• on environmental policy, environmental management and liquidation of the consequences of the Chernobyl disaster ( Valery Kalchenko ),
• on family issues, youth policy, sports and tourism ( Mykola Tomenko ),
• on freedom of speech and information ( Andriy Shevchenko ),
• on construction, urban planning and housing and communal services (Yuri Serbin),
• on agrarian policy and land relations ( Mikhail Gladiy ),
• on culture and spirituality ( Vladimir Yavorivsky ).
• special control commission on privatization issues ( Andrey Kozhemyakin ).

On September 22, 2006 , BYuT deputies and three members of the SPU faction signed an agreement on the creation of a parliamentary opposition headed by Yulia Tymoshenko in the Verkhovna Rada. Mykola Tomenko , Alexander Turchinov (both are representatives of BYuT) and Iosif Vinsky became her deputies.

On October 20, the Reform and Order Party (PDP) joined the BYuT.

In the meantime, during August - September 2006, Our Ukraine conducted negotiations on participation in a broad government coalition. These negotiations, however, did not lead to an agreement, and on October 4, the leader of the Our Ukraine parliamentary faction, Roman Bessmertny, declared that the NSNU was going into opposition to the current government of Viktor Yanukovych and the broad government coalition and withdrawing its ministers from the government.

Our Ukraine announced its intention to hold consultations on the possibility of joining the interfactional parliamentary opposition, which is headed by Yulia Tymoshenko . For cooperation with BYuT, the leader of Our Ukraine proposed to create a confederation of "European Ukraine". Yulia Tymoshenko declared that she did not intend to share with “Our Ukraine” the status of the main opposition force, much less sign any agreements.

During the session of the Verkhovna Rada, the BYuT faction called for the abolition of political (constitutional) reform, an agreement about which was signed by the warring parties during the Orange Revolution , and the return of powers provided by the 1996 Constitution to President Yushchenko. In a situation where the ruling coalition had enough power to prevent such a review, Yulia Tymoshenko began to propose holding early parliamentary elections to bring the country out of the “constitutional crisis”, which, in her opinion, brought the President’s Secretariat and the Cabinet of Ministers, wanting to compromise.

Back in December 2006, Yulia Tymoshenko declared that her bloc would never vote for the law "On the Cabinet of Ministers."

On January 12, 2007 , however, the deputies of the “anti-crisis coalition” and the BYuT faction overrode the president’s veto on the law “On the Cabinet of Ministers” and passed the law “On parliamentary opposition” in the first reading. Such a vote was made possible thanks to a political agreement, outside of which only deputies from Our Ukraine remained. Yulia Tymoshenko’s supporters agreed with Viktor Yanukovich ’s anti-crisis coalition on overcoming the presidential veto on the night of January 11 and 12 that the ruling coalition would support the Law on Parliamentary Opposition, which would give the advantages of BYuT as the main opposition faction, the right to head the budget committee, hold the posts of first deputy heads of all parliamentary committees, create a shadow government, and also influence the formation of the personal composition of the Accounts Chamber, the Council of the National Bank and High Council of Justice. Representatives of the parliamentary opposition would be entitled to participate in meetings of the Cabinet.

In turn, the entry into force of the law “On the Cabinet of Ministers” should have led to the president completely losing influence on the actions of the executive authorities, which would mean Ukraine’s transition from parliamentary-presidential to parliamentary form of government.

Yulia Tymoshenko explained the reasons that BYuT voted for overcoming the presidential veto: “The faction voted so to bring order and not to disgrace the country to the whole world with internal political scandals.”

In March, the ruling "anti-crisis" coalition began to actively expand at the expense of deputies of opposition factions, including the BYuT. If this process continued, the parliamentary coalition could get a constitutional majority , which would allow it to overcome the presidential veto and make changes to the Constitution - and this Yushchenko could not allow.

On April 2, Viktor Yushchenko signed a decree "On the early termination of the powers of the Verkhovna Rada" and scheduled extraordinary elections of people's deputies for May 27. On the side of the president was the united opposition, which included three main political forces - the Yulia Tymoshenko Bloc, the Our Ukraine political parties bloc and the People’s Self-Defense public movement Yury Lutsenko. This marked the beginning of a protracted political crisis and led to early parliamentary elections .

Early Parliamentary Elections

At the election, the Yulia Tymoshenko Bloc set out a list of 449 candidates (the list (in Ukrainian) ), headed by Yulia Tymoshenko , Oleksandr Turchynov , Mykola Tomenko and Iosif Vinsky .

The unit includes:

1. All-Ukrainian Association " Batkivshchyna " ( Allukraine about the interface "Batkivshchyna" )
2. Party “ Reforms and Order ” (PRP) ( Party “Reforms and Order” )
3. Ukrainian Social Democratic Party (USDP) ( Ukrainian Social- Democratic Party ).

On July 18, the head of the electoral headquarters of the Our Ukraine-People’s Self-Defense bloc, Viktor Baloga, announced that NUNS intends to sign with BYuT an agreement on the creation of a coalition of the “democratic majority” in the Verkhovna Rada of the VI convocation, based on agreements on joint work in opposition by factions “ Our Ukraine "and BYuT in February 2007 . The agreement was supposed to formalize the ban on the possibility of creating a parliamentary majority with the participation of the Party of Regions , the Communist Party of Ukraine and the SPU . The document planned to fix the mechanism of distribution of posts in the event of victory in the elections - posts in the government should be equally divided, while the bloc that received more votes was to receive the post of prime minister, and the second bloc - the post of chairman of the Verkhovna Rada.

On August 23, Yulia Tymoshenko met with President of Ukraine Viktor Yushchenko , and they agreed to cooperate with BYuT and NUNS during the election campaign and confirmed that they plan to create a coalition after the elections.

As a result of the vote held on September 30, 2007 , BYuT took second place, receiving 30.71% of the vote and 156 seats in parliament, thus increasing its representation by 27 seats. The number of voters who voted for BYuT has grown by almost 1.5 million people. ^[five]