Elections-2019: in Yatsenyuk’s party — "war", and Groysman prepares his top five

Elections-2019: in Yatsenyuk’s party — "war", and Groysman prepares his top five

Prime Minister Volodymyr Groysman will present his party "Ukrainian Strategy" this week by holding its congress.

These plans are reported in an article by Ukrainska Pravda, citing one of the leaders of Groysman’s campaign headquarters.

"In a few days we will hold a congress, and there will be a presentation of the party. The electoral campaign has started, so there’s no time to drag our feet. It will include the main points of the program, the messages, and the first five-to-ten [candidates]," a source in Groysman’s headquarters said.

According to him, at the top of the party list will be Groysman himself and the current Minister of the Cabinet of Ministers, Oleksandr Saienko.

"Maybe Oksana Markarova will be in the top five. She’s a very decent person, and we would be glad to have her. But you’ll see at the congress," a Groysman ally said.

The prime minister’s campaign will be run by Ukrainian technologists; Groysman rejected proposals from American specialists.

The campaign slogan is to be the phrase "Ukraine is not just a place on the map..." with variations to follow.

Groysman decided to run in the parliamentary elections independently, distancing himself from former president Petro Poroshenko’s team, after several months of negotiations with Arseniy Yatsenyuk’s Narodnyi Front.

Groysman and Yatsenyuk could have created a party of two prime ministers, split evenly between their allies, but forecasts about the new party’s realistic chances of entering the Rada stood in the way.

"Inside Narodnyi Front itself there’s a whole war. Let’s be honest, our electoral goal—ideally—is to take 5% and get 20 people into the Rada. The Front would get 10 of them. And right now they have 80! What are the rest supposed to do? So inside the NF the mood is: better for everyone to go down together, but with music," one of Groysman’s associates said.

"Besides, NF’s rating is negative. They tried to rebrand, but it’s not taking off," he added.

"Right now we have 20% of people who view Groysman’s work positively. That’s not 20% party rating, but it’s something you can work with. So the difference between us and the Front is that they’ve already tried and definitely aren’t taking off. We haven’t tried yet," the Groysman associate explained.

Groysman also doesn’t want to remain in Poroshenko’s shadow: "If we don’t go on our own now, we will forever remain his team. This is our last chance to become an independent actor," a close ally of the prime minister believes.

"If someone wants to unite, they can join us. We will not join anyone," said another member of Groysman’s team, Vadym Denysenko.