Reforms and Order party

Reforms and Order party (Партія «Реформи і Поріядок»; Partiia ‘Reformy i Poriadok’ or ПРП; PRP). A minor right-of-centre political party aligned at various times with movements headed by Viktor Yushchenko and Yuliia Tymoshenko. It was registered with the Ministry of Justice on 24 October 1997, soon after its founding convention on 11 October, where Viktor Pynzenyk was elected leader. The party believed in the need for high and steady rates of economic growth, and for the state’s withdrawal from direct control of the economy in favor of a facilitating role, in order to achieve European standards of living in Ukraine. It also believed unequivocally that Ukraine must become integrated fully into Europe. Within the European context, the RPR belonged to the family of social-market political parties.

The party failed to elect any members on its party list in the 1998 elections to the Supreme Council of Ukraine, but managed to secure six single-member seats. In the Supreme Council, it combined with the pre-existing ‘Reforms’ caucus to establish the ‘Reforms-Congress’ fraction. In 1999, the party managed to reach agreement with factions of the Popular Movement of Ukraine (Rukh), the People’s Democratic party (NDP), the Democratic Party of Ukraine (DemPU), and the Congress of Ukrainian Nationalists to form an alliance, the Bloc of National Forces. The party’s backing of Hennadii Udovenko, a Rukh leader, in the 1999 presidential elections was unrewarding; in the second round, it called on its followers to vote against both contenders, Leonid Kuchma and Petro Symonenko. Thereafter, the PRP supported the government of Prime Minister Viktor Yushchenko. Its caucus joined the parliamentary majority, but was critical of President Kuchma’s referendum and other actions being pursued with the backing of the ‘oligarchs.’ Upon Yushchenko’s dismissal, the RPR caucus went over to the opposition offering to nominate Yushchenko as candidate for president which he declined. The PRP claimed to have 15,000 members throughout the country. Its parliamentary caucus comprised 15 deputies on 13 June 2001.

In the 2002 parliamentary elections, PRP joined ten other minor parties making up Viktor Yushchenko’s Our Ukraine bloc, and 28 of its members entered the Supreme Council of Ukraine. In 2004, the party briefly changed its name to ‘Our Ukraine’ (reversed a year later) and supported Yushchenko in his bid for the presidency. In the Supreme Council the PRP faction in 2005 consisted of 15 deputies.

Following a series of unsuccessful discussions with Yuliia Tymoshenko’s Batkivshchyna party, the PRP joined PORA to contest the 2006 pre-term elections. This bloc, obtaining less than 1.5 percent of the vote, failed to gain representation in the Supreme Council. In the fall of 2006, the PRP announced its stance against the government of Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovych, joining the Yuliia Tymoshenko Bloc (BYuT) fraction in opposition. In the 2007 elections, PRP allied with the Batkivshchyna party and Ukrainian Social Democratic party within BYuT. The bloc took 156 seats for second place and 10 PRP members were elected; Viktor Pynzenyk was named finance minister in the government of Prime Minister Tymoshenko.

In the 2010 presidential elections, PRP supported Yuliia Tymoshenko, and followed her into opposition to President Viktor Yanukovych. Viktor Pynzenyk was replaced as leader that year by Serhii Soboliev. The party was to have merged with the Batkivshchyna party in 2012, but at the last minute backed out. The merger was completed in 2013, but PRP has remained on the register of the Ministry of Justice as a separate party.

Bohdan Harasymiw
[This article was written in 2024.]