Radical Party of Oleh Liashko Радикальна партія Олега Ляшка | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Abbreviation | RPL[1] |
| Leader | Oleh Liashko[2] |
| Founded | 28 September 2010; 15 years ago (2010-09-28)[2] |
| Headquarters | Kyiv |
| Ideology | |
| Political position | Left-wing[11] |
| Colours | White[12] Black[12] Red[12] |
| Verkhovna Rada[13] | 0 / 450 |
| Regions[14] | 582 / 43,122 |
| Website | |
| liashko | |
TheRadical Party of Oleh Liashko (Ukrainian:Радикальна партія Олега Ляшка,romanized: Radykal'na partiia Oleha Liashka;RPL),[1][2] formerly known as theUkrainian Radical-Democratic Party (Ukrainian:Українська радикально-демократична партія,romanized: Ukrainska radykalno-demokratychna partiia;URDP), is apolitical party inUkraine.[15] It was registered in September 2010.[2] It was primarily known for its radical populism, especially in 2014, when it had its largest amount of support.[16]
At the2012 parliamentary election, the party had won 1 seat.[17] The party won 22 seats at the2014 parliamentary election.[18][19] At the2019 parliamentary election it lost all of its seats.[20]
The party was established at the founding congress inMykolaiv on 18 August 2010 and was then named the Ukrainian Radical Democratic Party.[21] Under this name, it was registered with theMinistry of Justice of Ukraine on 28 September 2010.[2][21] At the time, the party was led by Vladyslav Telipko.[21]
During its third party congress on 8 August 2011,Oleh Liashko was elected the new party leader.[21] The same day, the party changed its name to the Radical Party of Oleh Liashko.[22]
At the2012 Ukrainian parliamentary election, the party won 1.08% of the national votes and 1constituency (it had competed in 28 constituencies)[23] for its leader Liashko,[24] who did not join a faction in theVerkhovna Rada.[25] The party was most successful inChernihiv Oblast, where it received 10.69 percent of the vote, finishing fifth.[citation needed] The constituency that Liashko won was also located in Chernihiv Oblast.[citation needed]
The party became known for its left-wing populism, with pitchfork becoming the main symbol of the party, together with its highly contrastive combination of white, black and red.[12] The party's appeal is emboided by its radical populist leader Oleh Liashko, who campaigned in the traditionalvyshyvanka embroidered shirt with a pitchfork, portraying himself as an ordinary countryman. The party also became notable for its aggressive use of online campaigning and social media.[26]
According to political scientist Tadeusz A. Olszański, in mid-September 2014 the party was "a typical one-man party, centred around Oleh Liashko; its real organisational potential remains a mystery".[27] At the2014 Ukrainian parliamentary election, the party's list was led by Liashko, with Serhii Melnychuk, commander of theAidar Battalion, in third place, singerZlata Ognevich in fourth place andYurii Shukhevych, son of the military leader of theUkrainian Insurgent ArmyRoman Shukhevych, in fifth place.[28] At the election, the party won 22 seats.[19] It received support from rural and regional voters who had previously supportedFatherland.[29]
On 21 November 2014, the party became a member of the coalition supporting thesecond Yatsenyuk government and sent one minister into this government.[30][31]
On 3 June 2015, the parliament stripped the party's MP Serhii Melnychuk of his parliamentary prosecutorial immunity rights as he was accused of forming a criminal gang, abductings and threatening people.[32]
The Radical Party left the second Yatsenyuk government coalition on 1 September 2015 in protest over a vote in parliament involving a change to theUkrainian Constitution that would lead todecentralization and greater powers for areas held bypro-Russian separatists.[33] According to party leader Liashko, the party "can't stay in the coalition afteranti-Ukrainian changes to the constitution, initiated by thepresident, were approved against the will of three parties of the coalition".[33] He was referring to his own party,Self Reliance and Fatherland.[34][35]
In the2019 Ukrainian parliamentary election the party lost all its parliamentary seats, it gained about 1% too little to clear the 5% election threshold and also did not win an electoral district seat.[20] The party had participated in 65single-mandate majority electoral districts.[36]
In the2020 Ukrainian local elections 535 people won seats in local councils on behalf of the party, that is about 1.62% of the available seats.[37]
In 2022, in response to theRussian invasion of Ukraine, the leader of the party Oleg Liashko joined the Ukrainian army to fight in the war, for which he earned the nickname "Beast".[38] In August 2023, the party announced that 34 out of its 582 regional deputies joined the Ukrainian army; two of the deputies died in combat - Eduard Pinchuk of theSumy Oblast Council and Adriy Korniychuk of theKostopil City Council.[39]
Observers had defined the party asleft-wing,[40][41][42][43][44][45] with some also describing it asright-wing,[46][47] orfar-right.[48][49] However, political scientists such as Luke March,[50] Mattia Zulianello,[51] Paul Chaisty as well as Stephen Whitefield classify the party as left-wing,[52] and the 2017Oxford Handbook of Populism also describes the party as left-wing.[53] TheRazumkov Centre also classifies the Radical Party as one with a "clearly leftist profile".[54] Regarding the concerns of the Radical Party's hardline nationalist rhetoric, political analyst Georgy Chizhov argues: "Lyashko can hardly be considered a true nationalist; he does not go deep into the jungle of ideology and completely emasculates the essence of his appeals as glorious traditions of the past."[55]
The Radical Party is centered on Liashko, who is known for hispopulism and highly combative behavior. The party advocates a number of traditional left-wing positions on economics[56][57][58] such as lowersalary taxes, a ban on agricultural land sale and eliminating the illegal land market, a tenfold increase in budget spending on health and setting upprimary health centres in every village[59] and mixes them with strong nationalist sentiments.[60]Anton Shekhovtsov ofUniversity College London considers Liashko's party to be similar topopulist andnationalist.[61] A similar view is shared by political scientist Mattia Zulianello.[62] The party proposes an extensive social protection policy with guarantees of free service, supports the state having the leading role in the economy, and calls for redistribution and state regulatons of prices for public goods.[63] Political scientistTadeusz A. Olszański described the party as liberal-nationalist, pro-European and populist.[64]
Liashko and his party combine radically left-wing economical stances with authoritarian and nationalist outlook on society; economically, the party is considered social-democratic.[1] The Radical Party promotes the concept of a state as an active, authoritarian regulator of both the society and economy. The party supports extensive social welfare, protectionism as a way to support domestic industries, generous agricultural grants and implementation of state control on prices. One of the iconic proposals of the party is for the state to pay at least 5.000 hryvnias to every farmer for every cow owned, and to compensate 50% of farming equipment cost.[65] The ideological foundation of the party was described as left social populism with paternalistic qualities; in its program, the party asserts: “The purpose of the Radical Party – a society of equal opportunities and welfare.” Similarly, the party also states the “protection of the disadvantaged” as its overarching goal.[66]
The party has promised to purify the country ofoligarchs "with apitchfork".[67] It has proposed higher taxes on products manufactured by oligarchs and a crisis tax on the latter.[59] The party was described as presenting "left-wing, anti-oligarch economic policies previously associated with the Communist Party"; the similarity with the banned Communist Party is also similar because of the Radical Party's oppositional stance towards EU integration. Paul Chaisty and Stephen Whitefield noted that the party "took the same position as voters of right-wing and nationalist parties on the question of EU integration, suggesting no significant realignment of Communist voters in the East".[52] The party routinely attacks theInternational Monetary Fund, stating that the "global financial clans have infiltrated our National Bank of Ukraine, ministries and departments, and have usurped at least 60% of Ukraine’s sovereignty".[68]
Party leader Liashko had stressed in May 2011 he had nothing against sexual minorities.[69] In a September 2015 interview withUkrayinska Pravda, he stated that being anLGBT person "is the choice of each individual. I can not condemn".[70]
Ukrainian political analyst Denys Rybachok described the party as "a supporter of social democracy with high social obligations of the state", including the party's populist proposals to hike taxes on the oligarchs, implement protectionist measures to protect national produces, reverse the privatization of once state-owned enterprises, and re-nationalize sold land. In regards to legislative matters, the party supports quotas for the Ukrainian language, advocates the strengthening of the presidential power and demands the release of all current judges and prosecutors from their functions. The party also seeks to reduce the number of MPs in theVerkhovna Rada from 450 to 250, and to introduce term limits to the Rada.[1]
The party wants tore-arm Ukraine withnuclear weapons.[67] The party also advocates an end to theRusso-Ukrainian War by the use of force.[27] The party also proposes deployment ofUnited Nations peacekeeping in Donbas.[1]
Amongst the proposals of the party is to ban Russophile parties such as theCommunist Party of Ukraine and theParty of Regions.[71] Despite its anti-Russian positions, the party also supportslocalism and regional decentralization, arguing for the need to extend the authority of local governments.[72]
Polish observers compared the Radical Party of Olesh Liashko toSelf-Defence of the Republic of Poland (Polish:Samoobrona Rzeczpospolitej Polski).[73]Die Presse also compared Lyashko himself to the leader of Samoobrona,Andrzej Lepper.[74] Samoobrona is a far-left[75] Polish political party that was described as radical,[76] left-wing populist,[77] andagrarian socialist.[78] Two parties share many similarities, such as their staunchly nationalist, agrarian and left-wing populist positions, as well as controversial forms of protest.[73]
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| Year | Popular vote | % of popular vote | Overall seats won | Seat change | Government |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2012 | 221,136 | 1.08 | 1 / 450 |  1 | Opposition |
| 2014 | 1,171,697 | 7.45 | 22 / 450 | 21 | YeS-PF-USR-BA-RPL (2014–2015) |
| YeS-PF-USR-BA (2015–2016) | |||||
| YeS-PF (2016–2019) | |||||
| 2019 | 586,294 | 4.01 | 0 / 450 |  22 | Extra-parliamentary |
| Election year | Candidate | No. of 1st round votes | % of 1st round vote | No. of 2nd round votes | % of 2nd round vote |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2014 | Oleh Liashko | 1,500,377 | 8.32 | ||
| 2019 | Oleh Liashko | 1,036,003 | 5.48 |
The party is a supporter of social democracy with high social obligations of the state (in particular, in the medical care).
The Radical Party with its left-wing and populist deviation, which has already tired the voters out, faces serious problems. Taking into account Liashko's rating of 5.48% in the presidential election, only the commitment of stable voters to this particular political figure can save all the "radicals" from political non-existence.
Even though Melnychuk is now a political independent, he was elected in November 2014 as a representative of the Radical Party of Oleh Lyashko, a left-wing populist party which has considerable appeal in rural Ukraine.
The major political parties consist of: (...) Radical (left-wing populist/nationalist) led by Oleh Lyashko; (...)
Neither the emergence of a leftist populist party, the Radical Party, which sought to appeal to nationalist voters.
A bodyguard of Ihor Mosiychuk - a nationalist Radical Party MP - was killed, the organisation's head said.
Other parties that seem poised to gain proportional seats in the new Verkhovna Rada include former Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko's Fatherland party, the populist-nationalist Radical Party of Oleh Lyashko, former Defense Minister Anatoliy Hrytsenko's Civic Position party, and Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk's Popular Front.
The Oleh Lashko Radical Party was founded in 2010 as the Ukrainian Radical-Democratic Party, and has had its present name and leadership since 2011. Its programme is liberal-nationalist, pro-European, populist. It is a typical one-man party, centred around Oleh Lashko; its real organisational potential remains a mystery.
"By the left/right vector, Parliament is dominated by parties of the right spectrum – Petro Poroshenko Bloc, "UDAR", "People's Front". "Opposition Bloc" with its paternalistic attitudes and the Radical Party of Oleh Lyashko can be qualified as leftist, given the rhetoric the parties resort to.
Neither the emergence of a leftist populist party, the Radical Party, which sought to appeal to nationalist voters.
Thus, the representative of the left forces, the leader of the Radical Party Oleg Lyashko, positioning himself as a "people's" president, in essence, hinted at the establishment of an authoritarian regime: "Lyashko will be in Ukraine like Lukashenka in Belarus. Everyone will fly like a thorny broom".
There were others, such as Vadim Troyan, who was from Biletsky's Social-National Assembly and the Azov regiment, and who got elected in a single-mandate district, or Oleh Lyashko, whose ideology mixed left-wing populism with high-octane nationalism, and whose party—the Radical Party of Oleh Lyashko—won 6.4 percent of the vote.
However, the left-wing ideology will be represented in parliament. "Batkivshchyna", the Opposition Bloc and the Radical Party of Oleh Lyashko have very pronounced centre-left platforms.
Radical Party of Oleh Lyashko - Left-wing
"By the left/right vector, Parliament is dominated by parties of the right spectrum – Petro Poroshenko Bloc, "UDAR", "People's Front". "Opposition Bloc" with its paternalistic attitudes and the Radical Party of Oleh Lyashko can be qualified as leftist, given the rhetoric the parties resort to.
A feature of the post-Soviet landscape is that radical left-wing quasi-populist forces have been as prevalent (perhaps more so) than those of the right. This is unsurprising, since across Europe, the post-Soviet radical left has become more populist, acting no longer as the vanguard of a (now diminished) proletariat but as the vox populi (e.g. March, 2011). Whereas many left-wing parties retain a strong socialist ideological core, there are other social populists whose populism has become a more systematic element of their ideological appeal. Lyashko (who came third in the 2014 presidential elections) represents a less ideological, but more incendiary, macho, and media-astute populism akin to a "radio shock jock" (e.g. Kozloff, 2015). He supports a folksy, peasant-based populism focusing on anti-corruption and higher taxes on the oligarchs.
The analysis of party programmes in terms of their socio-economic policy made it possible to identify the following parties that may enter the new Parliament:four clearly leftist parties (the Radical Party, For Life, the Opposition Bloc and "Batkivshchyna"), one left-ofcentre ("Svoboda"), one conditionally centrist (Servant of the People) and three right-of-centre parties (the Civic Position, "Samopomich" Union, and Petro Poroshenko Bloc).
Bis vor Kurzem galt Ljaschko als One-Man-Show, als verbalradikaler Volkstribun, ein ukrainischer Andrzej Lepper.
Media related toRadical Party of Oleh Liashko at Wikimedia Commons| International | |
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