A group of MPs from the Party of Regions announced their withdrawal from their former party and faction in parliament and the formation of a new group in opposition to the current government, reports Espreso.TV on April 8.
Former Party of Regions member Serhiy Tyhypko, who was recently expelled from the party, posted the announcement on his Facebook page.
According to the authors of the statement, “the recent tragic events in Ukraine and current developments in the country today have had no influence on the leadership of the Party of Regions and its ability to soberly assess the situation.”
“At a time when the country was driven to the brink of civil conflict, the party leadership persistently ignored what was happening and did not respond to the dangerous rhetoric of opponents. The result was the loss of control over the situation, dozens dead in the streets of Kyiv, and division in society,” the statement says.
“Since the change in leadership of the Verkhovna Rada (Parliament) and the formation of a new Cabinet, the party leadership still continues to drift along without clearly defining its new position and without developing new methods to defend the interests of voters, who represent millions of Ukrainian residents who have entrusted the Party of Regions to act on their behalf in the highest legislative body of the country. As a result, the Party of Regions currently has no strategy or tactic and no clear position on the situation in the country, on the current government, and on the foreign policy of Ukraine,” the former Regionals state.
“At a time when the party needs to be purged and rebooted, certain party leaders have returned to the old method of backstage deals. The leadership of the party has been seized by people who are not willing to admit mistakes, to accept the need for change, to listen to another point of view, and to put the interests of the voters above their own. The party continues to be a closed joint stock company whose purpose is to generate profits for certain financial-industrial groups. We cannot continue to tolerate this situation and we announce our withdrawal from the Party of Regions and its faction in the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine. We also announce the creation of a group in opposition to the current government,” the statement concludes.
The new group states that its goals include: ensuring the unity of Ukraine, economic reforms aimed at supporting local producers, administrative-territorial reform, budgetary decentralization, empowerment of local government, and making Russian the second official language in the country.
The appeal was signed by: Serhiy Dunayev, Yuliy Yoffe, Yuriy Miroshnychenko, Serhiy Tyhypko, Svitlana Fabrykant, Yuliya Lovochkina, Oleh Shablatovych, Vasyl Polyakov, Andriy Pinchuk, Hennadiy Fedoryak, Artem Semenyuk, Oleksandr Nechayev, Anatoliy Hirshfeld, Iryna Horina.
Source: http://espreso.tv/news/2014/04/08/tyhipko_formuye_v_radi_svoyu_hrupku_z_sylnoukrayinciv_i_hazovykiv
Translated by Anna Mostovych
