The Democratic Congress of NSNU lasted 11 hours

The decisions of the second stage of the III Congress of the Political Party "People's Union Our Ukraine," which lasted about 11 hours, were not easy and were accompanied by intra-party discussions, but the congress results dispelled the myth of a party split and renewed by one third the composition of the Party Council, which now includes two more Volyn residents. Now the interests of Volyn Our Ukraine members will be defended by: the head of the Volyn Regional State Administration Volodymyr Bondar, the head of the executive committee of the Volyn Regional Organization of the PP NSNU Mykola Buliha, People's Deputy of Ukraine Volodymyr Karpuk, regional council deputy Volodymyr Hunchyk, the head of the "Our Ukraine" faction in the city council Andriy Kozyura and People's Deputy of the previous convocation Serhiy Slabenko.

Despite the difficulties with which the third congress of "Our Ukraine" took place, the party did not lose but was tempered, because the steps that needed to be taken to move to a new stage of party development were nonetheless made. The main and defining ones, of course, were: the final decision on the Party's opposition activity, the Congress's instruction to the "Our Ukraine" faction to initiate a vote of no confidence in V. Yanukovych's Government and to submit a constitutional petition to the Constitutional Court of Ukraine with the aim of recognizing the Law of Ukraine "On Amending the Constitution of Ukraine" as having been adopted in violation of constitutional procedure.

The delegates did not bypass the issue of uniting the Orange forces, which they stipulated in an adopted resolution, because, as stated in the document, "Unity is what our supporters demand of us. For the practical implementation of the idea of uniting the Orange forces, the III Congress of the 'People's Union Our Ukraine' has decided to initiate local and regional forums of the Orange forces, the main purpose of which is unification to counter the threat of revenge by the 'anti-crisis coalition.'"

The congress delegates defined opposition activity by confirming it with a decision whose main point clearly states that "Our Ukraine" is a political force in opposition to the current Government and, despite the fact that it is the only pro-presidential parliamentary party, bears no political responsibility for the policy of the current Government, that is, "Our Ukraine" is moving into opposition to the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine and the government coalition in Parliament, and not to the entire system of power.

At the same time, the congress delegates stopped discussions regarding the vagueness of the ideological platform of the "People's Union Our Ukraine" by approving changes to the party Program and outlining the main program goals and political tasks of the party at the current stage in the document "European Choice: The Invariance of the Chosen Path." It clearly presents the party's activity on principled issues: reform of Ukraine's judicial and legal system, strengthening the status of the Ukrainian language as the sole state language, pursuing a policy of national reconciliation, where it is clearly stated that "Our Ukraine" advocates overcoming inter-confessional contradictions, supports granting proper legal status to UPA veterans and will insist on the adoption by the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine of a law that would recognize the Holodomor of 1932-1933 as genocide against the Ukrainian people. Among the party's other political tasks are the deepening of market reforms, ensuring Ukraine's energy independence, and its European choice, which will be confirmed by accession to the WTO and NATO.

Despite the fact that the Our Ukraine congress assessed the activity of the party Council as unsatisfactory, the party had enough common sense to reach a consolidated decision by electing a new council composition, which was renewed by one third and increased from 177 to 214 people. Now each region will have three representatives in the council, who were elected at conferences of regional organizations. To ensure close interaction between the faction and the Council, it will also include People's Deputies from the "Our Ukraine" faction and People's Deputies of previous convocations who were members of the faction or of the inter-factional association "Our Ukraine," which was created in 2001. Although these people are no longer deputies, they have valuable experience that will undoubtedly be needed by the still rather young party.

The congress ended with results, even despite the fact that some delegates were unable to achieve a decision on changing the head of the NSNU council by voting at the Congress and did not vote for changing the name of the NSNU party to "Our Ukraine." Of course, the most resonant issue raised in the hall where the NSNU congress was held was the election of the party head, but in order to put this issue to a vote, it was necessary to introduce changes to the party Charter, and the required votes were not gathered to adopt this decision. The head of the party Council, Roman Bezsmertny, commented on this as follows: "I have never claimed and will never claim the party head position. That is not my job. I see a leader in this party in about 3-4 years, when it will be capable, like an organism, of forming intellect within itself here."

The Political Party "People's Union Our Ukraine" is perhaps the only Ukrainian party that practices democratic principles of work even at its own internal organizational congresses, not fearing to bring up for media discussion issues that many leaders of other political forces decide in closed halls, without journalists, guests from other political forces and community representatives. Perhaps this openness sometimes works against "Our Ukraine," because there are as many media outlets as there are opinions and positions from which information is presented.

The President of Ukraine and Honorary Head of the Party "People's Union Our Ukraine," Viktor Yushchenko, gave a positive assessment of the congress: "All this is called democracy. You can't tailor it to fit like a suit. And you can't hem in the sleeves. That's what democracy is, you know," Yushchenko summarized.