In the opposition

The Party of Navalny held a congress

February 2, 2015 Denis Bilunov

Last Sunday, the VI Congress of the "Party of Progress" by Alexei Navalny took place, which gathered 62 delegates from the regions. Navalny told how the party will fight for chairs in the State Duma in 2016. Partyers plan to agree on a coalition with other representatives of the opposition on the division of single -mandate districts. Alexey Navalny called the main goal of the party in the elections to take the majority from United Russia. The political analyst, member of the solidarity bureau Denis Bilunov, told the “Party of Progress” “Party of Progress” to the “daily magazine”:

“Russian society as a whole is now a very big problem, which is that people do not want to be structured. Therefore, any attempt to change this is very important, and the fact that the "party of progress" has advanced on this path far enough is a certain plus. If they continue to have enough strength, motivation and perseverance in order to maintain the created structure, it will be very valuable. At the same time, it is obvious that the general development of the situation has the exact opposite, to apathy and the desire to quit everything, so that this task will not be easy. Therefore, I wish the “party of progress” of all kinds of successes, we, in turn, maintain working contacts with them, cooperate and think where to move on.

The very problem of several opposition parties is a fairly old question that is rooted in the problem of Yabloko and the ATP of 2003. It was an epic file when both parties did not go to the State Duma elections, which no one expected, and many began to say that one common party was needed. Since then, a lot of water has flowed, but practice shows that all attempts to collect the opposition within the framework of one organization are doomed, no matter how we want the opposite. This has already happened so many times that it remains only to conclude that it is just the nature of human nature or, perhaps, the specifics of Russia, although I personally think that in this regard we are not different from other countries. We must learn to achieve common goals, being in different organizations, nothing is impossible in this, this is a meaningful problem, which I already talked about a lot, I myself discussed it, including with the leadership of the “Party of Progress”. Everyone understands that it is necessary to act together, and if for one reason it is more convenient for people to make their views in this way, one cannot forcibly force them to unite and do this a necessary condition. Those who say that until such a merger does not occur, they will not participate in anything, take the wrong position, much more harmful than the position of those who already do something, albeit under different signs.

The Party of Progress is undoubtedly very much connected with the personality of Alexei Navalny. But I do not think that the ongoing pressure on it will interfere with their work. On the contrary, an organization that has a pronounced leader can be even more motivated if the leader is pressure. They have more reasons to act and react. ”


Photo: TASS/ Valery Sharifulin