Strong Ukraine (Ukrainian: Сильна Україна, romanized: Sylna Ukraina); formerly the Labour Party Ukraine[a],[8] is a political party in Ukraine that was re-established in April 2014.[2] It was originally registered in August 1999 and dissolved in March 2012[8] after it had merged with the Party of Regions on 17 March 2012.[9] Since late 2009 the party was and is the main vehicle of billionaire Serhiy Tihipko.[10] After the parties merger Tihipko became a member of the Party of Regions.[11] On 7 April 2014 the political council of this party expelled Tihipko from the Party of Regions.[12]
The party claimed to have over 80,000 members in mid-May 2010.[13]
On 11 March 2010 party leader Tihipko was elected as one of six deputy Prime Ministers (in charge of economic issues[23]) in the Azarov Government.[24]
A March 2010 poll predicted that the party would get 7.3% of the vote at the 2012 Ukrainian parliamentary election.[25] A May 2010 poll by the Kyiv International Institute of Sociology showed that the party had the greatest support among voters in central Ukraine (11%), and less supported in the west and south (7%); the lowest number of this party's supporters was in east Ukraine (5%).[26] At the 2010 local elections the party gained about 6% of the votes nationwide.[10]
In May 2011 the rating of the party had dropped to about 5% in election polls.[28][29]
In August 2011 Tihipko and Prime Minister (and a Party of Regions (POR) leader) Mykola Azarov announced that Strong Ukraine and POR are going to team up and eventually Strong Ukraine will be merged into POR.[30] Tihipko will become a POR member along with other Strong Ukraine representatives.[11][31][32][33] Mid-December 2011 Tihipko predicted the unification process would be completed late January 2012; but he also warned that if "problematic issues" would not be solved Strong Ukraine would not merge.[34] The parties merged on 17 March 2012.[9] According to Sociological group "RATING" the party would have collected 3.1% of the votes if Ukrainian parliamentary election would have occurred in February 2012.[35] In August 2012 experts believed potential voters of Tihipko and his Strong Ukraine! shifted their allegiance to Ukraine – Forward!.[36] In the 28 October 2012 parliamentary elections Ukraine – Forward won 1.58% of the national votes and no constituencies and thus failed to win parliamentary representation.[37]
Re-establishment
Party support (% of the votes cast) in different regions of Ukraine (in the 2014 election).
In March 2014 Tihipko became a self-nominated candidate for President of Ukraine in the 2014 presidential election.[38] On 29 March a Party of Regions convention supported Mykhailo Dobkin's nomination as a presidential candidate.[12] On 7 April 2014 the political council of the party expelled Tihipko from the party.[12] He then accused that the party had "been turned into a branch of a specific financial and industrial group, a private enterprise".[39] On 23 April 2014 Tihipko announced that Strong Ukraine would be revived and that its merger with Party of Regions had been "a mistake".[2]
On 5 August 2014 the party held its first Congress since its re-establishment.[1]
According to Tihipko the party is "patriotic but not nationalistic".[1] Tihipko has stated he wants to "unite the country".[1]
Concerning the War in Donbass, on 5 August 2014 Tihipko said that in March and April 2014 the Yatsenyuk Government wasted a chance to resolve the conflict through negotiations, and that by early August 2014 this was no longer an option. He also stated that "Terrorists" and their supporters in the east of the country had passed a "point of no return". He supports a professional Ukrainian army to prevent the conflict spreading to other parts of the country.[1] The party seeks a peaceful resolution to the conflict by negotiating with Russia through European mediators but not directly with the pro-Russian combatants.[41]
^(in Ukrainian) [Тігіпка переобрано головою оновленої партії "Сильна Україна" Tigipko re-elected renewed party "Strong Ukraine"], Interfax-Ukraine (5 August 2014)
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