Batkivshchyna

The All-Ukrainian Union "Fatherland" (Ukrainian: Всеукраїнське об'єднання "Батьківщина", romanized: Vseukrains'ke obiednannia "Bat'kivshchyna"), referred to as Batkivshchyna (Ukrainian: [ˌbɑtʲkiu̯ˈʃtʃɪnɐ] ), is a political party in Ukraine led by People's Deputy of Ukraine, former Ukrainian Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko. As the core party of the former Yulia Tymoshenko Bloc, Batkivshchyna has been represented in the Verkhovna Rada—the parliament of Ukraine—since Yulia Tymoshenko set up the parliamentary faction of the same name in March 1999. After the November 2011 banning of the participation of blocs of political parties in parliamentary elections, Batkivshchyna became a major force in Ukrainian politics independently. In the 2012 Ukrainian parliamentary election, Batkivshchyna took part under the banner "United opposition Batkivshchyna" and other parties allied with Batkivshchyna. The list won 62 seats and 25.55 percent of the vote under the nationwide proportional party-list system (down from 30.71 percent in 2007 for the Yulia Tymoshenko Bloc), and another 39 in constituencies – thus a total of 101 seats. On 15 June 2013, the parties "Front of Changes" and "Reforms and Order" merged with the Batkivshchyna by self-liquidation. By 31 December 2013, the parliamentary faction Batkivshchyna had 90 deputies. From 5 August 2011 to 22 February 2014, Yulia Tymoshenko was a political prisoner of the Yanukovych government. In the concluding days of the 2014 Ukrainian revolution, she was released after three years in jail and her reputation was rehabilitated by the Supreme Court of Ukraine and the European Court of Human Rights. Tymoshenko began reforming the party, and Batkivshchyna went into the parliamentary elections of 2014 with new members—the top five including Nadiya Savchenko, Yulia Tymoshenko, Ihor Lutsenko, Serhiy Sobolev, and Alyona Shkrum. Based on the election results, the party received 19 seats in the Ukrainian parliament: 17 according to party lists and two through the majority system. Until 17 February...