Front for Change (Ukraine)

For the Argentinian political party, see Front for Change/Social Pole.

Front for Change (Ukrainian: Фронт Змін) is a Ukrainian public organization^[9][10][11] and a former political party in Ukraine,^[1] both led by Arseniy Yatsenyuk.^[1][3] The party merged into All-Ukrainian Union "Fatherland" in June 2013.^[4]

Front for Change Фронт Змін
Leader	Arseniy Yatsenyuk[1][2][3]
Founded	June 26, 2007 (2007-06-26)[1] (political party) December 25, 2008 (2008-12-25)[2] (public organisation)
Dissolved	June 15, 2013 (2013-06-15)[4]
Merged into	All-Ukrainian Union "Fatherland"[4]
Headquarters	Kyiv
Youth wing	The young activists of the Front for Change[5][6]
Colours	Olive
Slogan	Front of the future[7]
Regions (2010)	158 / 3,056 [8]
Website
http://www.frontzmin.org/
Politics of Ukraine Political parties Elections

History

The political party Front for Change was registered with the Ministry of Justice on June 26, 2007, and entered in the Register of political parties under number 140 as People's Toiling Party.^[1]

Before changing its name to Front of Change, from October 2008 through September 2009 it used to be named as the Democratic Front. In December 2008 candidate for the Ukrainian 2010 presidential elections Arseniy Yatsenyuk^[12] founded the public organization Front of change.^[2] Yatsenyuk was at the time a member of Parliament elected as part of the list of the Our Ukraine–People's Self-Defense Bloc.

Mayor of Uzhhorod Serhiy Ratushniak was alleged to have beaten a female campaigner of Front of Change early August 2009,^[13] a criminal case was soon opened against Ratushniak.^[14][15]

On April 12, 2010, the Ministry of Justice of Ukraine confirmed the political party Front for Change is now (also) led by Yatseniuk.^[1]

In the 2010 local elections the party won representative in 20 of the 24 regional parliaments, it did not win seats in the Supreme Council of Crimea.^[16]

In September 2011 Our Ukraine–People's Self-Defense Bloc faction leader in the Ukrainian parliament Mykola Martynenko joined the party.^[17]

According to party leader Yatseniuk the party is financed by "about 28 representatives of medium-sized businesses and small businesses".^[18]

Since June 2008 the parties popularity in opinion polls reached a stable 11%.^{[19][20][21][22]} A May 2010 poll by the Kyiv International Institute of Sociology showed that the party had the greatest support in western regions (9%), slightly lower support in central Ukraine (4%) and the least support in southern and eastern regions (2%).^[23] Yatsenyuk announced on 7 April 2012 the party will form a single list of candidates with All-Ukrainian Union "Fatherland" during the October 2012 Ukrainian parliamentary election.^[24] Yatseniuk at the time stressed "Front of Changes existed and will exist".,^[24] but later that same month hinted the alliance could lay basis for one single party.^[25] The party competed on one single party under "umbrella" party "Fatherland", together with several other parties, during the October 2012 parliamentary elections^{[26][27][28][29][30][31]} Front for Change leader Arseniy Yatsenyuk headed this election list; because "Fatherland"-leader Yulia Tymoshenko was imprisoned.^[32][33] During the election this list won 62 seats (25.55% of the votes) under the proportional party-list system and another 39 by winning 39 simple-majority constituencies; a total of 101 seats in Parliament.^[34]

The party (and Reforms and Order Party) merged into "Fatherland" on 15 June 2013,^[4] while the merger of For Ukraine! into Front for Change, which had been agreed upon in December 2011 was canceled.^[35][36] However, the party is still registered at the Ukrainian Ministry of Justice.^[37] In the 2020 Ukrainian local elections 1 person won a local seat on behalf of the party.^[38]

Elections

Parliamentary since 2002 (year links to election page)
Year	Block	Votes	%	Mandates (const.)
2012[a]

Date	Party leader	Remarks
2007-2009	Viktor Vashkevych
2009	Andriy Ivanchuk
2009–present	Arseniy Yatsenyuk

See also

• People's Front (Ukraine)

Notes

^a After the merger with Batkivshchyna

References and footnotes

1. (in Ukrainian) "Front of Changes" announced its liquidation on Friday, Interfax-Ukraine (13 June 2013)
2. (in Ukrainian) Directory of NGOs Archived 2012-08-02 at the Wayback Machine, Ministry of Justice of Ukraine (number 2752 on the list)
3. Justice Ministry: Yatseniuk registered as Front for Change party leader, Kyiv Post (April 12, 2009)
4. Sobolev: Front for Change and Reform and Order Party to join Batkivschyna, Interfax-Ukraine (11 June 2013)
   Front for Change, Reforms and Order to dissolve for merger with Batkivshchyna - Sobolev Archived July 22, 2015, at the Wayback Machine, Ukrinform (11 June 2013))
5. Front for Change demands that Yanukovych fulfill his election promises, Kyiv Post (29 December 2011)
6. Young opposition activists stage rally to celebrate resignation of Azarov's government, Kyiv Post (5 December 2012)
7. Homepage of the official website of the party Archived 2012-01-19 at the Wayback Machine
8. (in Ukrainian) Results of elections Archived 2012-07-28 at archive.today, Central Election Commission
9. "Yatsenyuk promise to create party without "political kolobok's"" (in Ukrainian). Ukrayinska Pravda. 2009-01-28.
10. Yatseniuk says he is creating political party to secure future of Ukraine, Kyiv Post (September 28, 2009)
11. "Democratic Front party declares change of name to Front for Change". Kyiv Post. 2009-10-27.
12. "Yatsenyuk, a Yushchenko clone, will bring stagnation". Kyiv Post - Taras Kuzio. Archived from the original on February 18, 2009. Retrieved 2009-04-04.
13. Mayor of Uzhhorod alleged to have beaten girl campaigner of Front of Changes, Kyiv Post (August 7, 2009)
14. Ratushniak was accused of hooliganism, abuse of office and the violation of racial and national equality of citizens.
15. Ratushniak: I'm not xenophobic, but ‘It is not my fault that these Ukrainian billionaires are of Jewish origin’, Kyiv Post (August 14, 2009)
16. (in Ukrainian) Results of the elections, preliminary data, on interactive maps by Ukrayinska Pravda (8 November 2010)
17. Yatsenyuk’s Party Set to Become Third Force In Ukrainian Politics, The Jamestown Foundation (September 20, 2011)
18. (in Ukrainian) Яценюк розповів, хто його фінансує, Ukrayinska Pravda (16 December 2011)
19. Poll: Batkivschyna Party's electoral rating tops Regions Party in Ukraine, Kyiv Post (9 December 2011)
20. Ratings of parties, Sociological group "RATING"
    Electoral moods of the Ukrainian population: February 2012 Archived 2014-11-29 at the Wayback Machine, Sociological group "RATING" (March 5, 2012)
21. If parliamentary elections were held next Sunday how would you vote? (recurrent poll, 2010-2011) Archived 2016-03-04 at the Wayback Machine, Razumkov Centre
22. Party Of Regions, Tymoshenko bloc, Strong Ukraine, Front for Change and Communist Party would get into parliament, Kyiv Post (April 12, 2010
23. Poll: Political forces of Tigipko, Yatseniuk, Communist Party in Top 5 of April rating of parties, Kyiv Post (May 12, 2010)
24. (in Ukrainian) "ФРОНТ ЗМІН" ІДЕ В РАДУ З "БАТЬКІВЩИНОЮ", Ukrayinska Pravda (7 April 2012)
    Yatseniuk wants to meet with Tymoshenko to discuss reunion of opposition, Kyiv Post (7 April 2012)
25. Unification of opposition could lay basis for single party, says Yatseniuk, Kyiv Post (23 April 2012)
26. (in Ukrainian) Соціально-християнська партія вирішила приєднатися до об'єднаної опозиції, Den (newspaper) (24 April 2012)
27. Opposition to form single list to participate in parliamentary elections, Kyiv Post (2 March 2012)
    (in Ukrainian) "ФРОНТ ЗМІН" ІДЕ В РАДУ З "БАТЬКІВЩИНОЮ", Ukrayinska Pravda (7 April 2012)
    Yatseniuk wants to meet with Tymoshenko to discuss reunion of opposition, Kyiv Post (7 April 2012)
28. (in Ukrainian) Tymoshenko and Yatsenyuk united ("Тимошенко та Яценюк об'єдналися"), Ukrayinska Pravda (23 April 2012)
29. Civil Position party joins Ukraine's united opposition, Kyiv Post (20 June 2012)
30. Ukrainian opposition parties agree to form single list for 2012 elections, Kyiv Post (23 January 2012)
31. Opposition to form single list to participate in parliamentary elections, Kyiv Post (2 March 2012)
32. They Call Themselves the Opposition, The Ukrainian Week (31 August 2012)
33. (in Ukrainian) Список депутатів нової Верховної Ради, Ukrayinska Pravda (11 November 2012)
34. (in Ukrainian) Proportional votes Archived October 30, 2012, at the Wayback Machine & Constituency seats Archived November 5, 2012, at the Wayback Machine, Central Electoral Commission of Ukraine
    % of total seats, Ukrayinska Pravda
35. (in Ukrainian) Кириленко об'єднався з Яценюком, Ukrayinska Pravda (22 December 2011)
36. (in Ukrainian) Лідер «За Україну!» теж заявив, що не вступить в об’єднану опозиційну партію The leader of the "For Ukraine!" also said he did not join the united opposition party, Radio Free Europe (15 June 2013)
37. (in Ukrainian) Єдиний реєстр громадських формувань Unified Register of community groups Archived 2013-05-20 at the Wayback Machine, Ukrainian Ministry of Justice (as viewed on 25 October 2013)
38. "Results of the 2020 Ukrainian local elections on the official web-server of the". Central Election Commission of Ukraine (in Ukrainian). Retrieved 12 January 2021.

External links

• Official website (in Ukrainian)