History
The party was created by Nataliya Vitrenko a then dissident member of the Socialist Party of Ukraine (SPU) in 1996. She led a group of more radical SPU members who opposed what they regarded as revisionist tendencies in the Socialist Party. The Progressive Socialist Party of Ukraine is a left-wing party that supports integration with Russia and Belarus as an alternative to the EU. PSPU traditionally campaigns on an anti-NATO, anti-IMF and pro-Russian platform. During the 1998 parliamentary elections the party won 4,04% of the vote, and its candidate for the 1999 presidential elections, Nataliya Vitrenko, came 4th, with 10.97% of the vote in the first round.
At the legislative elections, 30 March 2002, the party established the Nataliya Vitrenko Bloc alliance, including the Party of Educators of Ukraine (Ukrainian: Партія Освітян України). It won 3.22% of the votes, little short of passing the 4% threshold needed to enter the Verkhovna Rada. PSPU was a vocal opponent of President Leonid Kuchma but supported Viktor Yanukovych, Ukrainian prime minister since 2002, during the 2004 elections. After the Orange Revolution of 2004, the party joined the opposition to new president Viktor Yushchenko in a coalition with the "Derzhava" (State) party led by former Ukrainian prosecutor Gennady Vasilyev. In the March 2006 parliamentary elections, the party again failed to gain any seats in Parliament, participating as People's Opposition Bloc of Natalia Vitrenko winning 2,93%. At the 2007 parliamentary elections the party failed once more to enter the parliament, its result dropped to 1,32%.
In the run-up to the 2010 presidential election the Progressive Socialist Party of Ukraine refused to join the election bloc of left and central left political forces since it did not want to be in the same election bloc as the Socialist Party of Ukraine. Instead the party tried to nominate Natalia Vitrenko again as there candidate in that election but the Central Election Commission of Ukraine refused to register her for failure to pay the required 2.5 million hryvnya nomination deposit. Eventually the Progressive Socialist Party of Ukraine supported Party of Regions leader Viktor Yanukovych in the runoff of the 2010 presidential election.
During the 2010 Ukrainian local elections the party only managed to win three representatives in the Sevastopol municipality.
Read more about this topic: Progressive Socialist Party Of Ukraine
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