Left front

Talk about a merger between the Communist Party of the Russian Federation and A Just Russia could cause a quarrel between the systemic opposition

Recently, rumors have flared up with renewed vigor about a possible merger of the parties of the Communist Party of the Russian Federation and A Just Russia and the creation of some new “left-wing” project of the Kremlin. Previously, informational reasons were created only by the leader of the Social Revolutionaries, Speaker of the Federation Council Sergei Mironov, with his statements about the inevitability of such a unification - he was especially active with this idea during the 2007 State Duma election campaign. However, now some media outlets are talking about an alleged meeting between Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin and Chairman of the Communist Party Central Committee Gennady Zyuganov, where they discussed issues of unification, moreover, on the basis of the Communist Party. The communist leader did not confirm the information, and Mr. Mironov immediately made a statement about the inevitability of unification “on social democratic positions,” that is, on the positions of “A Just Russia.” The Communist Party speaks of conscious attempts by the authorities to prevent, with the help of such rumors, any coordinated actions of the opposition.

“The unification of left forces must happen, and it will happen,” Sergei Mironov emphasized in a conversation with a Vremya Novostey correspondent. -- Previously, A Just Russia had already united nine political parties. As for our unification with the Communist Party of the Russian Federation, we already have the practice of cooperation with the healthy forces of this party. Such a unification will take place, but only under the banner of social democracy. And we are not talking about the infusion of “A Just Russia” into the Communist Party of the Russian Federation, but only about equal cooperation, as I said earlier. And it seems to me that such a unification will happen when the Communist Party of the Russian Federation will no longer be headed by Gennady Zyuganov.”

The Communists, in turn, continue to persist in their reluctance to unite with the Social Revolutionaries. “I just don’t understand how this topic of merger or union can still seem relevant to someone. We gave our assessment a long time ago: “A Just Russia” is a fake left-wing force, and we do not take it seriously. How, and most importantly, why combine gemstones and jewelry? Their voters will return to us over time. The elections showed that this process is going faster than we expected,” Ivan Melnikov, First Deputy Chairman of the Communist Party of the Russian Federation Central Committee and Vice-Speaker of the State Duma, told a Vremya Novostei correspondent. - But I would draw attention to this: the authorities were quite frightened by the interaction of the Communist Party of the Russian Federation, the Liberal Democratic Party, A Just Russia, and Yabloko in the fight against unfair elections. And now they are making every effort to introduce topics into the information field aimed at making us fight among ourselves. Note that, for example, the topic of Stalin's role is always brought to the fore as soon as the left and right together file lawsuits in any courts. Throwing in the topic of a merger or takeover with the “Socialist Revolutionaries” is from the same series. And anyone who talks about this falls into a pre-set trap. There is no need to pay attention to this. The President said: the party system has developed. It has developed, it means it has developed. We are confident enough in ourselves, our program and team that it would occur to someone to look for adventures in the form of Sergei Mironov.”

Meanwhile, experts do not agree on the assessment of either the electoral prospects for the unification of the Communists and the Socialist Revolutionaries, if it happened, or the feasibility of the unification process itself. “The Just Russia project has shown its low viability. In fact, the party is balancing on the brink of the entry barrier in all regional elections. In the next federal campaign, given the inertial development of the situation, the party risks not getting even 5% of the votes. The Communist Party of the Russian Federation is also in a serious crisis related to the problems of self-identification of the party, as well as the unwillingness of the central apparatus to move on to constructive work and abandon unnecessary and excessive opposition. The unification of these two parties under a new brand would give a serious impetus to the development of the left wing. If individually these parties can count on 15 percent of the votes (5% for Mironov’s party and 10% for Zyuganov’s party), then the new united party can easily count on a quarter of all votes, says Pavel Danilin, editor-in-chief of the Kremlin.org portal. . -- This will be served, firstly, by a natural reduction in the number of parties and a narrowing of opportunities for choice, secondly, by consolidating the administrative resource of “A Just Russia” and the human potential of the Communist Party of the Russian Federation, thirdly, by attracting new or “new old” leaders to the project, capable of raising interest in the party. Thus, the prospects for the united project will be much clearer than for these parties if they proceed separately. As for the Kremlin, it has long been interested in creating a responsible and strong left party, as well as in culturalizing the Communist Party of the Russian Federation.”

“I think that there is no logic to the creation of such an association,” Georgy Chizhov, vice-president of the Center for Political Technologies, told a Vremya Novostey correspondent. - Firstly, the number of parties has already been reduced to a minimum, there is nowhere else to reduce. And it is unlikely that parliamentary parties will undergo consolidation. Plus, “A Just Russia” is generally very strange; many politicians joined it but were left out of work because their political forces somehow dropped out of the process. There are also leftists there. There are remnants of liberals and the extreme right in the classical sense. This whole motley crew nevertheless occupies its niche and enters the majority of regional parliaments, because there is a lack of party pluralism. And the Communist Party of the Russian Federation is quite a systemic party, which is second in size after United Russia and, apparently, is doomed to be so in the coming years. There is no reason for anyone to cross such a hedgehog with such a hedgehog. And although our opposition parties are not inclined to object to the authorities, here, I think, they will rebel if they try to merge them.”

Ksenia VERETENNIKOVA