Ukraine – Forward!
Ukraine – Forward! (, "Ukrajina – Vpered!") is a social democratic political party in Ukraine. From its registration in December 1998 until March 2012 it was named Ukrainian Social Democratic Party. The party has, according to official figures, about 86,000 party members. The official name of the party is: Party of Natalia Korolevska "Ukraine – Forward!" (). Ukrainian Social Democratic Party was since its first election in 2002 a long a member of Bloc Yulia Tymoshenko (BYuT) but its leader Korolevska fell out with the BYuT's new leaders and they expelled her party from the bloc in March 2012. As a part  of BYuT the party was always represented in the Ukrainian Parliament. But running independently in 2012 it failed to win parliamentary representation. Ukraine – Forward! is seen as a pro-business party and the party has campaigned for Yulia Tymoshenko's release from jail. History. Party of Human Rights. The party traces its history back to 1994 when the Minister of Justice of Ukraine Vasyl Onopenko created his party, Party of Human Rights, which in January 1995 has united with the Social Democratic Party of Ukraine and the Ukrainian Party of Justice, later named as the Social Democratic Party of Ukraine  (united). Onopenko became famous for leaving the office of Minister of Justice in protest to the events of 1995 connected with the burial of the Patriarch Volodymyr and became known as the "Black Tuesday". A major break up of the party took place in 1998, after which Onopenko once again created a new party. Ukrainian Social Democratic Party. The Ukrainian Social Democratic Party () was founded in 1998 by former members of the Social Democratic Party of Ukraine (united). The first leader of the party was Vasyl Onopenko who in the Presidential elections in 1999 got 0,47% of the votes. At  the parliamentary elections on 30 March 2002, the party was part of the Yulia Tymoshenko Electoral Bloc alliance. Three members of the party were included to the parliamentary faction of the Yulia Tymoshenko Electoral Bloc: Vasyl Onopenko (MP), Volodymyr Levtsun (MP), Anatoliy Semynoha (director of "Agro-Ros"). During the parliamentary elections on 26 March 2006 the party also took part in the Yulia Tymoshenko Bloc. Out of 129 seats won by the bloc only eight were given to members of the Ukrainian Social Democratic Party. In November 2006 Yevhen Korniychuk became the chairman of the party. He served as the  First Deputy Justice Minister in the Second Tymoshenko Government. In the parliamentary elections on 30 September 2007, the party was again part of the Yulia Tymoshenko Bloc., that won 156 out of 450 seats. Again the party only received eight seats in parliament. In August 2011 Korniychuk voluntarily resigned from his post in connection with criminal investigations against him. The leadership of Yulia Tymoshenko Bloc had accused him of working together with their arch-rivals Party of Regions. Former member of All-Ukrainian Union "Fatherland" (that party was also a member of the Yulia Tymoshenko Bloc) Natalia Korolevska was elected  party leader on 23 December 2011. Ukraine – Forward! Party leader Korolevska was expelled from the “Bloc Yulia Tymoshenko-Batkivschyna”-faction (formerly BYuT faction) in the Verkhovna Rada (Ukrainian parliament) on 14 March 2012. The same day the party stated on its official website "We are deeply shocked and outraged by the betrayal of the leadership of the faction "Bloc Yulia Tymoshenko-Batkivschyna". These events also made the party leave the Dictatorship Resistance Committee. But it assured it was still "in opposition to the current regime, the Yanukovych regime". On 15 March 2012 the Ukrainian Social Democratic Party was expelled from the  Yulia Tymoshenko Bloc for alleged "cooperation with the presidential administration and the ruling regime". On the 22 March 2012 party congress the party was renamed "Party of Natalia Korolevska "Ukraine – Forward!"" (); in short "Ukraine – Forward!". Former members of Korolevska's old party All-Ukrainian Union "Fatherland" have joined the renamed party since. In June 2012 the party stated it would not cooperate with the Party of Regions in a new parliament. The party did participate in the October 2012 parliamentary elections. In March 2012 the parties popularity in opinion polls had reached a level far below above the election threshold  (which was raised to 5% in November 2011) with about 1% of the votes predicted to go to the party but in May 2012 the prediction had increased from 1% to 3.8%. Experts believed the party was gaining potential voters from former supporters of Sergiy Tigipko and his Strong Ukraine. Famed Ukrainian footballer Andriy Shevchenko joined the party immediately after his retirement in July 2012; he took second place on the party list for the October 2012 parliamentary elections. During the campaign for this election the party was one of the biggest spenders. The party official reported it had spent  US$7.6 million on the election campaign in multi-member constituencies. Political scientist Artem Bidenko estimated that the party had spent some US$150 million on the campaign. In June 2012 the party was advertising on 320 billboards in Kyiv alone and on 900 across Ukraine. One of their election billboards claimed that “an average wage of 1,000 euros and a pension of 500 euros” was realistic for Ukraine (the monthly average wage was €300 at the time). In the election the party won 1.58% of the national votes and no constituencies (it had competed in 105 constituencies) and  thus failed to win parliamentary representation. On 11 October 2012 the party had filed a lawsuit at Kyiv's economic court against the Democratic Initiatives Foundation and Kyiv International Institute of Sociology with a demand that they retract their reports about the low rating of the party; on 29 November 2012 the party revoked this lawsuit. Despite that in June 2012 the party had stated it would not cooperate with the Party of Regions in a new parliament and in October 2012 had threatened Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych with impeachment Korolevska became Minister of Social Policy of Ukraine in the  Party of Regions lead and appointed by Yanukovych second Azarov Government on 24 December 2012. For the 2014 Ukrainian parliamentary election, the party joined the Opposition Bloc along with other five parties; in these elections Opposition Bloc won 29 seats. Recent issue stances. During the campaign for the 2012 Ukrainian parliamentary election the party promises to relieve small and medium business to the maximum possible extent, “an active part of a fair and efficient state”, “securing social justice and high social standards”, “more welfare” and counteraction against “societal rifts along cultural, linguistic, religious and national lines” and they committed to  introduce “total citizen control on all government levels”.