Party of Shariy


Party of Shariy is a political party in Ukraine led by Ukrainian journalist Anatoly Shariy.

History

On June 6, 2019, this political party was officially registered in Ukraine. The party took part in the 2019 Ukrainian parliamentary election. The namesake leader of the party, Shariy, as the candidate for the parliamentary election himself was denied registration by the Central Election Commission of Ukraine on the grounds that he did not meet the requirement of a term of five-year residence in the country immediately preceding the elections. Previously, Shariy was known primarily for his investigations on corruption in the police and other law enforcement agencies during the Yanukovych government and, subsequently, sought asylum in the European Union in 2012 due to libel, defamation, and alleged politically motivated persecution by Ukrainian law enforcement bodies of the time. However, the party was officially registered by the Central Election Commission of Ukraine and entered into the election ballot under number 17, immediately following the Radical Party and preceding political party Holos on the list. On July 2, 2019, Anatoly Shariy was registered as a candidate for parliamentary election 2019 by the Central Election Commission of Ukraine. On the next day, July 3, 2019, the decision was reverted.

2019 parliamentary election performance

In the 2019 parliamentary election the party gained 327,152 votes. Falling under the 5% threshold, it won no parliamentary seats. The party also failed to win a constituency seat.
Winning more than the threshold of 2%, it was originally subject to funding from the budget for its support. However, on 2 October 2019, the Verkhovna Rada adopted the draft law No. 1029, which deprived parties of state funding that had won less than 5 per cent of the vote.. After the adoption of this law, Party of Shariy lost about 441,511 thousand euros of state funding.

Political positions and goals of the party

The immediate three goals of the political movement and its rationale as a future Ukrainian parliament party are:
  1. Cleansing of the Ukrainian political landscape and war on corruption.
  2. Providing critical assistance to the current President's party and creating a robust and efficient coalition with this political force.
  3. Total transparency and permanent control over the bodies of legislative and executive power in Ukraine.
  4. Informing the population of the country about the official and unofficial, shadow processes in Ukrainian politics.
Generally, the party stands on a number of fundamental principles shared by its members, such as:
  1. Аbsolute priority of personal dignity and human rights in Ukraine.
  2. Freedom of speech and conscience, yet the accountability of the press and public figures for libel and defamation.
  3. Direct democracy: electronic voting and cooperative decision-making.
  4. Euro-optimism and Euro-integration.
  5. Modernization of Ukrainian society, its politics, science and technology.
  6. Economic liberalism, yet continued support to the socially neglected strata of population.

    Criticism of the EU and George Soros

After Verkhovna Rada adopted neoliberal land reform laws, Anatoliy Shariy posted a partisan program video on his Youtube-channel, where he promoted renegotiation of conditions of IMF debt payments, while embracing sympathetic rhetoric towards Viktor Orbán eurosceptic nationalistic policies, describing EU as "an agressor, which surpresses facts about Icelandic Revolution" and alleging those, who support land reform as people who "got education and worked in financial structures of George Soros. Also, in another interview, which Shariy described as "his manifesto", he stated that "IMF wants to divide Ukraine" and compared Ukraine to a "drug abuser, where loans are syringes".

Party members

Apart from the leader of namesake party Anatoly Shariy, the top-10 of the Party list during the 2019 Ukrainian parliamentary election included:
Antonina Beloglazova, the second person in his party collaborated in Russia in 2015-2016 with the Russian Nationalist National Liberation Movement, which aims to restoration of Russia's sovereignty. This movement has been repeatedly observed at various pro-Putin events. Konstantin Mamrosenko, Beloglazova's brother, who heads the department "B" in the Party of Shariy, along with Arsen Pavlov took part in the seizure of the Kharkiv Regional State Administration in 2014.

Threats and attacks

On supporters and party members

The supporters and members of the Party of Shariy were repeatedly attacked, using physical force, a mobile phone was also broken in one of these attacks, and soon one of the attackers was identified: a certain Konstiantyn Ustyuzhin, a citizen of Ukraine. In connection with this, a statement about the attack was written and then sent to the National Police of Ukraine for further investigation.

On party opponents

Journalist Andriy Kachor claims he received threats from Sharij Party supporters after the publication on his site about the burning of Sharij Party agitation materials by unknown Vinnytsia people.