Congress of Ukrainian Nationalists
The Congress of Ukrainian Nationalists is a far-right political party in Ukraine. It was founded on 18 October 1992 and registered with the Ministry of Justice on 26 January 1993. The party leader from its formation until her death in 2003 was Yaroslava Stetsko.
History
The party was set up late 1992 by émigrés of OUN-B on the initiative of Slava Stetsko and Roman Zvarych. It was registered on 26 January 1993 by the Ukrainian Ministry of Justice and was the 11th political party in Ukraine that was officially registered.During the 1998 parliamentary election, the party was part of the Election Bloc "National Front" which won 2.71% of the national votes and 6 seats.
At the parliamentary elections on 30 March 2002, the party was part of the Viktor Yushchenko Bloc Our Ukraine. Former party leader Oleksiy Ivchenko was the head of Naftogas of Ukraine under the Yekhanurov Government. He was elected as the party leader at the seventh convention of the party on 13 April 2003.
During the parliamentary elections of 2006 on 26 March, the party was part of the Our Ukraine alliance. Roman Zvarych was Minister of Justice of Ukraine in the First Tymoshenko Government and Second Tymoshenko Government and in the Alliance of National Unity.
At the end of 2006, the Prosecutor General of Ukraine’s Office opened a criminal case against party leader Oleksii Ivchenko on charges of embezzlement and abuse of his official position as former head of Naftogaz. Ivchenko was dropped from its party ticket in the spring of 2007. The party refused to join the Our Ukraine–People's Self-Defense Bloc in August 2007 and almost a month before the elections decided not to run in the 2007 parliamentary elections.
In the 2010 local elections, the party biggest achievement was winning two seats in the Lviv Oblast Counsel. In December 2011, Stepan Bratsiun was elected party leader.
The party competed on one single party under "umbrella" party Our Ukraine in the 2012 parliamentary election, together with Ukrainian People's Party; this list won 1.11% of the national votes and no constituencies and thus failed to win parliamentary representation. The party itself had competed in 28 constituencies and lost in all.
In the 2014 parliamentary election, the party was electable on a nationwide list and it participated in 8 constituencies; but its candidates lost in all of them and the party received only 0.05% of the votes nationwide and thus the party won no parliamentary seats.
On 19 November 2018, the Congress of Ukrainian Nationalists and fellow Ukrainian nationalist political organizations Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists, Right Sector and C14 endorsed the Ruslan Koshulynskyi candidacy in the 2019 presidential election. In the election Koshulynskyi received 1.6% of the votes.
In the 2020 local elections, the party gained 13 deputies.
Ideology
The party supports the social conservatism, ultranationalism and a strong nation state independent from Russia.Relation with Jews
Party members have in the past espoused in what was seen as anti-Semitic views. In 2005 the official organ of the party, newspaper "The Nation and Power", published an article which said: "The titular nation in Ukraine will disappear in 2006.... After the 2006 election, Ukrainians will dance around the Jews." In his speech at the opening of the Holodomor Memorial in November 2007, the Head of the party in Zaporizhia Oblast Tymchina stated: "Our time has come, and the Dnieper will soon be red with the blood of Kikes and Moskals." The Kommersant newspaper on 26 January 2010 quoted the head of the Kiev city organization Yuri Shepetyuk saying: "There is no anti-Semitism in Ukraine. The Jews themselves organize various provocations, and then talk about the persecution in their address, to get even more funding from abroad". Kommersant notes: "However, he did not specify what provocations were staged in Ukraine by representatives of the Jewish community."The party appears to express support for Zionism and Israel, and regards Ze'ev Jabotinsky as a hero, as it features articles by Moysey Fishbein as well as a few other articles.
Leaders
- Slava Stetsko
- Oleksiy Ivchenko
- Stepan Bratsiun