ATP never found a leader

At the congress of the Union of Right Forces (ATP), which will open on Saturday, the new leader, most likely, will not be elected. Thus, the right ones will not fulfill their promises to find the new party chairman in six months given in January, write Vedomosti.

The functionaries of the ATP propose to launch the process of "long elections", which provides for primaries among supporters or a competition for the best project development project. The other day, a member of the Presidium of the Federal Political Council of the party Leonid Gozman announced that all five members of the Presidium came to the conclusion that at the congress of a single leader should not be elected. According to him, "the former co -chairs raised the bar so high that there are no comparable figures."

Another member of the Presidium, Ivan Starikov, will recommend colleagues to launch at the congress "Party Development Competition". “The right to propose your draft program, and with it all parties to the chairmen should have its candidacy for the chairmen,” says Starikov. In his opinion, the initial selection of projects should be carried out at the level of regional party organizations, then the Federal Political Council will determine the five best projects and take them to the congress, which will choose the best, and its author will become the new chairman of the party.

Another of the current leaders of the ATP Boris Nadezhdin offers to look for a leader with the help of primaries. By primaries, Nadezhdin understands the All -Russian sociological survey of about 500,000 citizens, among which supporters of the ATP should be identified. They will be invited to choose a leader from several candidates. Among the applicants, Nadezhdin proposes to include everyone who can raise funds to finance primaries. He himself is ready to participate and claims that he will be able to collect about $ 1 million.

As the newspaper notes , Nadezhdin said that the party has a discussion about its further development paths: to become the opposition of the current government, getting closer to the “Yabloko” or enter the alliance with the right as part of “United Russia”. Nadezhdin believes that it is necessary to postpone the election of the party leader before it will be possible to understand which scenario of the election will develop by the Kremlin by 2007. And in accordance with the Kremlin script, put forward a suitable leader, notes the publication.

Boris Nemtsov and Gozman refuted Nadezhdin's words about rapprochement with the party in power. However, they noted that in the party there really is a discussion about the ways of development of the ATP. This issue will be discussed at the congress on Saturday.

However, not all party members are ready to be left without a leader for an indefinite time. Member of the political council Vadim Bondar recalls that the "long elections" are not provided for by the Charter of the ATP. He considers the “best option” the election of the new chairman at the Saturday Congress, which offers to extend until Sunday. Bondar considers worthy candidates to Starikov, Nadezhdin, and another ex-deputy of the State Duma-Arthur of Cleat.

As a source in the Political Service of the ATP told the newspaper, "ordinary members of the ATP cannot arrange the unpopularity of former leaders who entered the composition of the political council and determine the whole life of the party." Several regional party organizations occupy a similar position. The Moscow organization, according to the member of its political council and delegate of the congress Sergey Zhavoronkov, decided on Wednesday to seek the election of the chairman. The Muscovites do not insist on any particular candidate, but they want to "put an end to the current collective leadership, which turned out to be a collective irresponsibility," says Zhavoronkov.

The head of the Moscow organization Eduard Vorobyov explained: "If there is an army, then there must be a commander." He said that recently at a zonal meeting, members of the ATP put forward the idea: hold a competition in the party to replace the vacant place of the leader. For this, the political officer must develop the conditions of the competition and the criteria of the “true leader”. In his opinion, "this question will rise at the congress."

According to experts, the question of the leader of the ATP, even if it is put on the agenda "from the voice", he will receive permission at the congress. “The Party of Chubais, which the ATP is becoming more and more, can only lead Chubais,” said Alexei Makarkin, head of the analytical department of the Center for Political Technology. The rest of the options when the party could lead a liberal politician like Nemtsov or a little -known, but a promising young regional, according to a political scientist, are unlikely: "The first option has already been tried, and he failed, and it is simply impossible to promote a new leader without going to television."