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Self Reliance (political party)

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The Union "Self Reliance" (Ukrainian: Об'єднання «Самопоміч», romanized: Obiednannia “Samopomich”) is a liberal conservative and Christian democratic political party in Ukraine.

Self Reliance
Samopomich
Самопоміч
LeaderOksana Syroyid[1]
FounderAndriy Sadovyi
Founded29 December 2012
HeadquartersLviv
Membership (2019[2])±2,000[2]
Ideology
Political positionCentre-right
European affiliationEuropean People's Party (observer)[7]
Colours  Green
  Blue
Verkhovna Rada[8]
1 / 450
Regions (2020)
222 / 43,122
Lviv Oblast Council
9 / 84
Website
samopomich.ua

It was founded on 29 December 2012, and identifies with the ideology of "Christian morality and common sense." The name of the party is similar to the name of the NGO, founded by former leader, Andriy Sadovyi in 2004. The party won 33 seats in the 2014 Ukrainian parliamentary election.[9][10] In the 2019 Ukrainian parliamentary election, the party won a single seat, the 122nd electoral district in Lviv Oblast.[11]

Etymology

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The name and ideology of the party is referring to the history of Ukrainian cooperative movement, which started in Western Ukraine in the beginning of 20th century. The financial societies that appeared prior to World War I in Galicia were formed as a part of Ukrainian national movement. The idea to start Ukrainian national financial cooperation societies belonged to Dr. Yevhen Olesnytskyi, lawyer, the head of Stryi's Prosvita movement and member of the Austro-Hungarian Parliament.[12] He started to organise seminars for like-minded people, who supported the idea of solving economic problems before resolving political issues. The fight against poverty and backwardness was the main goal of the organisation, which quickly acquired popularity. The local Prosvita activists supported the call for action, and already in 1904 Ostap Nyzhankivskyi, composer and priest from the village Zavadiv near Stryi, founded first cooperative of milk producers.

The idea proved to be popular among Ukrainian peasants; in 1914, the Union of Milk Cooperatives united more than 100 unions under the leadership of Ostap Nyzhankivskyi. Soon the Union started to issue its own newspaper, which received the name 'Samopomich'. The WWI and the following Polish-Ukrainian war interrupted the movement, as its activists devoted themselves to the work for the West Ukrainian People's Republic. The leader of the movement, Ostap Nyzhankivskyi, became the district commissar of Stryi and died in the battle for the city on 13 May 1919.

The cooperative activism reemerged after the WWI. The officers of the Ukrainian Galician Army who had emigrated to Czechoslovakia and Denmark, returned to Ukraine and brought there the experience of European cooperative movement. Until late 1930s, the new cooperative 'Ukrainian Milk Society 'Maslosoyiuz' united up to 500,000 farms, and became an important player in the European agriculture market.

The practice of cooperation spread to other spheres of life: Galician Ukrainians founded their own bank (bank 'Dnister'), trade network (shops of 'Maslosoyiuz' and 'People's Trade'), supervision bodies (Revision Union of Ukrainian Cooperatives), insurance companies, educational system, etc. Such organisations, as Sokil, Plast, Sport Society 'Ukraine' popularised healthy lifestyle, the Taras Shevchenko Academic Society united scientists and intellectuals. The World War II and Soviet repressions brought an end to the civic activity on the territory of Ukraine.

History

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Early history

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The contemporary history of the political party Self Reliance started in 2004, with the creation of an NGO called "Self Reliance". Andriy Sadovyi, who was the director of the Institute of the City Development, initiated the foundation of an organisation, which would derive from the history and traditions of the Ukrainian cooperation movement. Thus, the charity "Self Reliance" was established on 4 November 2004. The main activities of the organisation were: promoting legal literacy among the citizens, promoting healthy lifestyle, organisation of the volunteer movement and establishing local cooperation entities.[13][14]

In 2006, Andriy Sadovyi was elected the mayor of Lviv. He relied on the Self Reliance team in creating the development strategy for the city of Lviv. In 2010, Sadovyi was reelected for the office of mayor.

On 14 October 2012, Sadovyi began the formation of the Self Reliance political party. The party united the legacy of Ukrainian cooperative movement and Christian-democratic ideology. Self Reliance was registered as a political party on 29 December 2012.[15] In 2013, Self Reliance had its first constituent assembly in the Building of Pedagogical Museum in Kyiv.[16] The party started to form local representation units and develop ideological approach. Self Reliance activists participated in Euromaidan.

Kyiv City Council elections

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Self Reliance participated in the 25 May 2014 elections to the Kyiv City Council.[17] The party asked the citizens to propose candidates for the election, and assigned the position in the party list according to the preferences of the public. In that election, the party received 7.4% of votes and won five seats in the Council.[18][19]

2014 parliamentary elections and faction

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Self Reliance party conference in Kyiv in the lead up to the 2014 elections

On 28 February 2014, the party's leader Andriy Sadovyi, said Self Reliance would take part in the snap parliamentary elections scheduled for October 2014.[20] In the Ukrainian parliamentary election Hanna Hopko headed the party list, followed by Donbas Battalion commander Semen Semenchenko, while Sadovyi obtained the 50th place. The party campaigned for local self-organisation and decentralisation. The party finished third in the election.[10]

It was the only party which did not have any former parliamentarians on its election list but rather people from community NGOs and medium-sized businesses.[14][21] Candidates of Volia were included in the election list of Self Reliance.[22] Its parliamentary faction received 33 mandates including one won at constituency elections.[10] The faction includes experts-activists out of the Reanimation Package of Reforms (a public initiative), military personnel and business representatives (mostly IT-related).[23] By party affiliation, the faction consists mostly out of unaffiliated deputies, while there is one deputy of the Ukrainian People's Party and only three members of the Self Reliance party.[23]

The top ten members of parliament were Hanna Hopko, Semen Semenchenko, Oleksiy Skrypnyk, Oksana Syroyid, Viktor Kryvenko, Iryna Suslova, Pavlo Kyshkar, Aliona Babak, Natalia Veselova and Oleksandr Danchenko.

Following the elections the party became a member of the coalition supporting the current second Yatsenyuk Government and it had one minister in this government, Minister of Agrarian Policy and Food Oleksiy Pavlenko.[24][25][26]

Hopko and Kryvenko were expelled from Self Reliance on 31 August 2015 for violating faction discipline, as they supported the amendments to the Ukrainian Constitution that would lead to decentralization and greater powers for the pro-Russian separatists on the territory they occupied during the War in Donbass.[27][28] By late October 2015, the Self Reliance faction in the Rada had shrunk from 33 seats to 26 seats.[8]

The party did not do particularly well in the 2015 Ukrainian local elections (winning approximately 10% of the votes); but its candidate Oleksandr Senkevych was elected Mayor of Mykolayiv in the elections.[29][30] But the following years party factions in city councils dissolved themselves, some factions rebranded themselves to a new local party (as happened to the party's Kyiv City Council and Kyiv Oblast Council factions) and party deputies transferred to other factions.[2]

On 4 February 2016, leader of Self Reliance parliamentary faction Oleh Berezyuk said Pavlenko no longer represented his party in the second Yatsenyuk Government.[24]

On 17 February 2016, after a supported by the party but failed motion of no confidence against the government, Self Reliance issued an official statement on its Facebook page in which it argued "A cynical coup has occurred in Ukraine, with the help of the president, the prime minister, the kleptocratic part of the coalition, and the oligarch bloc" that led to the second Yatsenyuk government being an "illegitimate government".[31] The next day Self Reliance left the coalition.[32][31]

The party did not join the coalition that supports 14 April 2016 installed Groysman Government.[33]

From Autumn 2015 until June 2016, party members were engaged in talks on an attempt to form a political party around then Governor of Odesa Oblast Mikheil Saakashvili with members of the parliamentary group Interfactional Union "Eurooptimists", Democratic Alliance and possibly Self Reliance until this projection collapsed in June 2016.[34]

2019 and 2020 elections

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Self Reliance announced on 3 October 2018 that party leader Andriy Sadovyi would be their candidate in the 2019 Ukrainian presidential election.[35] He indeed became a candidate in the election from 8 January[36] until 1 March 2019, when he decided to withdraw to support the candidacy of Anatoliy Hrytsenko.[37] In these elections, Hrytsenko did not proceed to the second round of the election; in the first round, he placed fifth with 6.91% of the votes.[38]

In April and May 2019, seven members of the party's parliamentary faction left the party but remained in the Self Reliance faction.[39]

In the July 2019 Ukrainian parliamentary election, 13 of the party's incumbent MPs were on the Self Reliance party list, while four incumbent Self Reliance MPs tried to get reelected for the party Voice, another four for Strength and Honor and one for Servant of the People.[40] In the parliamentary election, Self Reliance won one seat (in one of the electoral constituencies) while only scoring 0.62% of the national vote.[11][41] Self Reliance candidate Pavlo Bakunets won their only parliamentary seat by winning the electoral district of Yavoriv with 14.84% of the votes.[42][43]

In October 2019, the former party leader Sadovyi was succeeded by Oksana Syroyid.[1]

In the 2020 Ukrainian local elections, the party did not make the top 10 of winners of the election; thus, she scored less than the 1.62% of the available seats won by the Radical Party of Oleh Lyashko.[44] In total, the party gained 223 deputies (0.52% of all available mandates) in the elections.[45] The party won nine of the 84 seats of the Lviv Oblast Council (the winner in this election with 28 seats was European Solidarity)[46] and 17 of the 64 seats in the Lviv City Council (coming second to European Solidarity's 26 seats) and Sadovy was reelected mayor of Lviv in the second round of the Lviv mayoral election with 62.25% of the vote (he had gained 40.09% in the first round).[47][48]

Ideology

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According to former party leader Andriy Sadovyi, Self Reliance shares the liberal conservatism ideology,[49] but Timofey Milovanov of the University of Pittsburgh disagrees, claiming,[nb 1] "They have no ideology. Some of their laws are conservative, some are populist, and some are liberal".[49]

Election results

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Party support (% of the votes cast) in different regions of Ukraine (in the 2014 election).

Verkhovna Rada

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Year Popular vote % of popular vote Overall seats won Seat change Government
2014 1,727,744 10.98
33 / 450
 New Coalition (2014−2016)
Opposition (2016−2019)
2019 91,740 0.62
1 / 450
   32 Opposition

Lviv Oblast Council

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Year Popular vote % of popular vote Overall seats won Seat change
2015 155,337 14.77
14 / 84
 New
2020 67,266 8.71
9 / 84
   5

See also

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Notes

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  1. ^ Based on his 2015 study of Ukraine's main parties on their legislative track records.[49]

References

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  1. ^ a b "Sadovyi after the failure of the election resigned as the leader of "Self-help". He already found a replacement". glavcom.ua (in Ukrainian). 19 October 2019.
  2. ^ a b c Self-help and elections: will the party be able to return to political orbit?, Civil movement "Chesno" (25 May 2020) (in Ukrainian)
  3. ^ Sakwa, Richard (2014). Frontline Ukraine: Crisis in the Borderlands. I.B.Tauris. p. 242. ISBN 9780857738042.
  4. ^ Siaroff, Alan (2018). Comparative European Party Systems: An Analysis of Parliamentary Elections Since 1945. Routledge. ISBN 9781317498766.
  5. ^ Yekelchyk, Serhy (2015). The Conflict in Ukraine: What Everyone Needs to Know. Oxford University Press. p. 160. ISBN 9780190237288.
  6. ^ Nordsieck, Wolfram (2019). "Ukraine". Parties and Elections in Europe. Retrieved 22 July 2019.
  7. ^ a b "EPP Political Assembly remains committed to Spitzenkandidat process; welcomes new Ukrainian parties". epp.eu. 4 June 2019. Retrieved 4 June 2019.
  8. ^ a b (in Ukrainian) Депутатські фракції і групи VII скликання Deputy fractions and Groups, Verkhovna Rada official website
  9. ^ Poroshenko and Yatsenyuk’s parties maneuver for lead role in coalition, Kyiv Post (29 October 2014)
    New Verkhovna Rada, Kyiv Post (30 October 2014)
  10. ^ a b c Poroshenko Bloc to have greatest number of seats in parliament, Ukrinform (8 November 2014)
    People's Front 0.33% ahead of Poroshenko Bloc with all ballots counted in Ukraine elections - CEC, Interfax-Ukraine (8 November 2014)
    Poroshenko Bloc to get 132 seats in parliament - CEC, Interfax-Ukraine (8 November 2014)
  11. ^ a b CEC counts 100 percent of vote in Ukraine's parliamentary elections, Ukrinform (26 July 2019)
    (in Russian) Results of the extraordinary elections of the People's Deputies of Ukraine 2019, Ukrainska Pravda (21 July 2019)
  12. ^ History Archived 6 March 2014 at the Wayback Machine. Self Reliance New York F.C.U.
    About us Archived 6 December 2013 at the Wayback Machine. UKRAINIAN SELFRELIANCE OF WESTERN PENNSYLVANIA FEDERAL CREDIT UNION.
  13. ^ Samopomich NGO samopomich.org
  14. ^ a b Olszański, Tadeusz A. (29 October 2014), A strong vote for reform: Ukraine after the parliamentary elections, OSW—Centre for Eastern Studies
  15. ^ (in Ukrainian) В Міністерстві юстиції зареєстровано партію «Самопоміч» Zik.ua, 3 January 2013
  16. ^ samopomich history, samopomich.ua
  17. ^ (in Ukrainian) «Самопоміч» оприлюднила виборчий список у Київраду zaxid.net, 21 April 2014
  18. ^ До Київради проходять 9 партій - офіційні результати [9 parties go to the Kyiv Council - official results]. Ukrainska Pravda (in Ukrainian). Retrieved 29 June 2023.
    60% нової Київради - представники "УДАРу". [60% of the new Kyiv Council are representatives of "UDAR".]. Ukrainska Pravda - Kyiv. Retrieved 29 June 2023.
  19. ^ ""УДАР" бере 75% у Київраді по мажоритарці. Список". Ukrainska Pravda - Kyiv. Retrieved 29 June 2023.
  20. ^ (in Ukrainian) Садовий піде на парламентські вибори з партією «Самопоміч» zaxid.net, 28 February 2014
  21. ^ "Ukraine Votes On Oct. 26 To Elect New Parliament", Kyiv Post (24 October 2014)
  22. ^ Poroshenko Bloc candidates leading in 64 single-seat constituencies - CEC, Interfax-Ukraine (27.10.2014)
  23. ^ a b Dear Deputies (partology). Hromadske.tv. 9 February 2015
  24. ^ a b (in Ukrainian) Berezyuk Pavlenko no longer represents the "Self", Ukrainska Pravda (4 February 2016)
  25. ^ Rada supports coalition-proposed government lineup, Interfax-Ukraine (2 December 2014)
    Rada approves new Cabinet with three foreigners, Kyiv Post (2 December 2014)
    (in Ukrainian) Rada voted the new Cabinet, Ukrainska Pravda (2 December 2014)
  26. ^ Five political forces sign coalition agreement, Interfax-Ukraine (21 November 2014)
    Ukraine's parliamentary parties initial coalition agreement, Interfax-Ukraine (21 November 2014)
  27. ^ "Новини | Українська правда".
  28. ^ "Ukraine crisis: Deadly anti-autonomy protest outside parliament". BBC News. 31 August 2015.
  29. ^ Mayors of Mykolayiv, Ivano-Frankivsk become known after elections, Ukrinform (16 November 2015)
  30. ^ Poroshenko Bloc, Batkivschyna, Nash Kray get largest number of seats in local councils – Ukrainian Voters Committee, Interfax-Ukraine (12 November 2015)
    Why a 'Star Wars' Emperor Won Office in Ukraine, Bloomberg News (26 October 2015)
    Exit Polls Show Ukraine Divided For, Against Poroshenko Rule, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (27 October 2015)
    After Ukraine’s Local Elections: Early Misinterpretations, Carnegie Europe (27 October 2015)
    Poroshenko hobbles on, Politico Europe (26 October 2015)
    Week’s milestones. Elections to be continued, blackmail in Minsk, and emotional lustration, UNIAN (27 October 2015)
  31. ^ a b Batkivschyna faction pulls out of coalition, UNIAN (17 February 2016)
    Batkivshchyna faction leaves ruling coalition, Kyiv Post (17 February 2016)
  32. ^ Samopomich pulls out from ruling coalition in parliamen, Interfax-Ukraine (18 February 2016)
    (in Ukrainian) "Self" comes from the coalition, Ukrainska Pravda (18 February 2016)
  33. ^ "Ukraine MPs approve Volodymyr Groysman as new PM". BBC News. 14 April 2016. Retrieved 14 April 2016.
    New Cabinet formed in Ukraine, UNIAN (14 April 2016)
    Week’s balance: PM Groysman, Rada’s sabotage, and disappointing IMF forecast, UNIAN (18 April 2016)
    (in Ukrainian) Spring transplantation: Prime Groisman and without a coalition Cabinet, Ukrainska Pravda (14 April 2016)
  34. ^ "Difficulties of ambition. Why young politicians can not agree on a single party". Ukrainska Pravda (in Ukrainian). 4 July 2016. Retrieved 5 August 2017.
  35. ^ Lviv mayor to run for president, LB.ua (3 October 2018)
  36. ^ ЦВК зареєструвала вже 5 кандидатів у президенти. Українська правда (in Ukrainian). Retrieved 1 March 2019.
  37. ^ "Sadovyi withdraws from presidential race in favor of Hrytsenko". www.unian.info. Retrieved 1 March 2019.
  38. ^ (in Ukrainian) Results of the presidential election in 2019. The first round, Ukrainska Pravda (31 March 2019)
  39. ^ (in Ukrainian) "Samopomich" leaves 5 more people's deputies, Ukrainska Pravda (8 May 2019)
  40. ^ "Оригінал завжди краще, ніж копія". Українська правда - Блоги.
  41. ^ "Переможені. Чому Гройсман, Ляшко і Гриценко програли вибори". Українська правда.
  42. ^ "Електоральна пам'ять". ukr.vote.
  43. ^ "Єдиний кандидат від Самопомочі пройшов до Ради".
  44. ^ (in Ukrainian) The CEC showed the top 10 parties that won the most seats in the election, Ukrainska Pravda (18 November 2020)
  45. ^ "Results of the 2020 Ukrainian local elections on the official web-server of the". Central Election Commission of Ukraine (in Ukrainian). Retrieved 12 January 2021.
  46. ^ Results of the 2020 elections of the Lviv Oblast Council, Central Election Commission of Ukraine
  47. ^ (in Ukrainian) The TEC officially announced Sadovy's victory in Lviv, Ukrainska Pravda (25 November 2020)
  48. ^ Results of the 2020 elections of the Lviv City Council, Central Election Commission of Ukraine
  49. ^ a b c Looking West: Lviv Models Itself As Ukraine's Future, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (23 October 2015)
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