MOSCOW, July 24 (RIA Novosti) - The decision to dissolve the Communist Party of Ukraine is unconstitutional, the party’s leader Petro Symonenko told RIA Novosti in an interview.
“I imagine that to talk about this decision being constitutional makes no sense here, because this decision tramples down the will of people, and that is 13 percent of Ukrainian citizens, who voted in support of the Communist Party of Ukraine at the elections. That is 3 million citizens of Ukraine,” Symonenko said.
Ukrainian parliament speaker Oleksandr Turchynov announced Wednesday that the Communist Party, which holds 23 seats in the Verkhovna Rada, would be dissolved on Thursday. The announcement followed Tuesday’s changes to the Verkhovna Rada’s rules, allowing the speaker of the house to dissolve the Communist party.
Symonenko reminded that Kiev’s regional court was to hear the case by Ukraine’s Justice Ministry on banning the Communist Party’s activity. He said the hearing was the reason the parliament decided to review the law on dissolving parties on Tuesday.
“That heresy we saw in the Verkhovna Rada with the grave violation of Ukrainian law has led to them forming a sort of a legislative basis for dissolving our party. Those, who don’t want for Ukrainian citizens to have a true view of the position of our party and our party in the parliament, are very much in a rush,” he said.
He added that the members of the party would not change their views after the ban.
“We will act according to our party’s internal canons as a complete political group in the Ukrainian parliament. Our position will not change, we will use any public appearance to expose those, who started this war,” the politician said.
In early May, Symonenko stated that if he were the head of state, he “would immediately call back all the troops” from the east of Ukraine, calling special operations in Donetsk and Luhansk regions “war against the people.”
Following the remarks, Ukraine’s Justice Ministry filed a court case on banning the party for its allegedly unconstitutional activity, support of independence supporters in the eastern regions and calls to alter Ukraine’s territorial integrity.
