The Election Bloc of Left and Center-left Political Forces () or the Block of the Left Forces () is the name of a bloc of political parties in

Ukraine Ukraine is a country in Eastern Europe. It is the List of European countries by area, second-largest country in Europe after Russia, which Russia–Ukraine border, borders it to the east and northeast. Ukraine also borders Belarus to the nor ...

who participated in the 2010 presidential election with a single candidate; the leader of the

Communist Party of Ukraine The Communist Party of Ukraine (CPU or KPU) is a banned political party in Ukraine. It was founded in 1993 and claimed to be the successor to the Soviet-era Communist Party of Ukraine, which had been banned in 1991. In 2002 it held a "unifi ...

Petro Symonenko Petro Mykolayovych Symonenko (; born 1 August 1952) is a Ukrainian politician and the First Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Ukraine. Symonenko was the party's candidate in the 1999 and 2004, 2010, and until his with ...

. During the 2010 election he received 3.54% of the votes.

History

On September 14, 2009 the

, the

Social Democratic Party of Ukraine (united) The Social Democratic Party of Ukraine (united) (, abbreviated SDPU(o) or СДПУ(о)) is a Ukrainian political party that was originally established as the Social Democratic Party of Ukraine. At the 1998 and 2002 parliamentary elections it wo ...

, the Justice Party and the Union of Leftists signed an agreement on creating the bloc of leftists and center-leftists and a unitary participation in the upcoming presidential election. The Bloc nominated Communist leader

for the post of

President of Ukraine The president of Ukraine (, ) is the head of state of Ukraine. The president represents the nation in international relations, administers the foreign political activity of the state, conducts negotiations and concludes international treaties. ...

. On October 3, 2009 his own Communist Party proposed him, on October 10, 2009 the Justice Party did the same followed by the Union of Leftists on October 16 and the Social Democratic Party of Ukraine (united) on October 17, 2009. The

Socialist Party of Ukraine The Socialist Party of Ukraine (, abbreviated SPU) was a social democratic and democratic socialist Political parties in Ukraine, political party in Ukraine. It was one of the oldest parties in Ukraine and was created by former members of the Sov ...

did not join the bloc but did state on the day of its creation that they would continue to negotiate to join the bloc. The Socialist Party of Ukraine also stated they would have preferred if the bloc would have been created after the presidential election (of 2010). The Progressive Socialist Party of Ukraine refused to join the unionCommunists say leftist bloc will call for referendum on NATO and Russian language status

Kyiv Post The ''Kyiv Post'' is Ukraine’s first and most prominent English-language newspaper. It was founded in 1995 in Kyiv by American businessman Jed Sunden. In 2018, the publication was acquired by prominent Ukrainian businessman Adnan Kivan, foun ...

(September 24, 2009) since it did not want to be in the same election bloc as the Socialist Party of Ukraine. The creation of the bloc made ex-

Leonid Kravchuk Leonid Makarovych Kravchuk (, ; 10 January 1934 – 10 May 2022) was a Ukrainian politician and the first president of Ukraine, serving from 5 December 1991 until 19 July 1994. In 1992, he signed the Lisbon Protocol, undertaking to give up Ukrai ...

leave the Social Democratic Party of Ukraine (united), Kravchuk declared he also was indignant because the political council of the party decided to accomplish that behind the closed doors in non-democratic order. He called the block ''"as the artificial union without any perspectives"''.Kravchuk leaves Social Democratic Party of Ukraine (united)
,

Interfax-Ukraine Interfax-Ukraine () is a Ukrainian news agency. Founded in 1992, the company publishes in Ukrainian, Russian, English and German. The company owns a 50-seat press centre. The staff of the agency is 105 people (as of the end of February 2022) ...

(September 25, 2009)

Stances

The bloc of leftists is planning to call for a referendum on the Common Economic Space, Ukraine's attitude to NATO and the status of the

Russian language in Ukraine Russian language, Russian is the most common first language in the Donbas and Crimea regions of Ukraine and the city of Kharkiv, and the predominant language in large cities in the East Ukraine, eastern and South Ukraine, southern portions of ...

. The bloc wants Russian to be the second state language in Ukraine (currently Ukrainian is the only state language of Ukraine).

References

External links

{{DEFAULTSORT:Bloc Of Left And Center-Left Forces 2009 establishments in Ukraine Communist Party of Ukraine Political opposition alliances Political parties established in 2009 Political party alliances in Ukraine Russophilic parties in Ukraine Socialist parties in Ukraine Socialist Party of Ukraine