"Today I am concerned by another aspect of life in our region that has not yet been assessed – political life. We all witnessed how a year ago a huge upsurge of the people united various political forces, by their essence, by their political convictions, in many cases by their approaches to certain problems, and we called this process the 'Orange Revolution.' I can say that we witnessed how most people stood on the square and no one asked anyone which political force they belonged to, what ideological principles they professed, or how they saw the development of the region in one or another economic or social direction. We were then united by a single goal, and this goal was higher than gaining power. This goal was the life and well-being of our nation," said the head of the Volyn Regional State Administration, Volodymyr Bondar, today at a press conference.
He addressed the democratic political forces of Volyn Oblast, primarily the parties of the 'Our Ukraine' bloc, the Yulia Tymoshenko Bloc, the Civic Bloc PORA-PRP, the Ukrainian People's Bloc of Kostenko-Plyushch, and the Socialist Party of Ukraine, with a call for unity. "I feel great discomfort from the fact that various political forces – those that were on the Maidan, those that by their nature should have had agreements among themselves – today stand on opposite sides of the barricades. This destabilizes the authorities in the region, which by its essence is orange, which nevertheless adheres to those foundations, those principles that were proclaimed by it while in opposition on the Maidan." The essence of the appeal is that all democratic forces in their activities must be guided by the following principles – ensuring honest and democratic elections, the well-being of Volyn residents, working as a single team in future local councils, support for agreed candidates for the positions of city mayors of the region, and renunciation of parliamentary immunity for deputies of local councils. "We must unite our efforts around the implementation of the program of President of Ukraine Viktor Yushchenko, casting aside all political contradictions and focusing on the progressive development of Ukraine, oriented toward European values and standards of life for citizens. We, the people of Volyn, must inspire our colleagues in the capital to unite, and prevent political forces that were removed from power a year ago, but which are very close to a revenge now, from coming to power."
Volodymyr Bondar is convinced that manipulating public opinion on the basis of state issues is a road to nowhere: "It is extremely regrettable to note that all nationwide events have begun to be transferred into the political and pre-election plane. This applies most of all to the signing of the gas agreement with the Russian Federation, political reform, the construction of storage facilities for nuclear waste on the territory of the Chornobyl NPP, and the unification of the orange team. I will tell you frankly, I believe that the unification of the orange forces has de facto taken place, and those who have not understood this but call themselves orange are in fact not."