The Ukrainian Democratic Alliance for Reform of Vitali Klitschko (Ukrainian: Український демократичний альянс за реформи Віталія Кличка, romanized: Ukrainskyi demokratychnyi alians za reformy Vitaliia Klychka, using the acronym UDAR Vitali Klitschko (Ukrainian: УДАР) translates to "strike" or "punch", English: PUNCH of Vitali Klitschko) is a political party in Ukraine headed by retired Ukrainian professional heavyweight boxer Vitali Klitschko. The party has been an observer member of the European People's Party (EPP) since 2013.
The party's original name was Political Party "European Capital" (Ukrainian: Політична партія "Європейська столиця", Russian: Политическая партия "Европейская столица"), founded in March 2005 by businessman Lev Partshaladze. On 24 April 2010, it was renamed Ukrainian Democratic Alliance for Reform and elected boxer Vitali Klitschko as its leader, following its participation in the Vitali Klitschko Bloc (Ukrainian: Блок Віталія Кличка, Russian: Блок Виталия Кличко), during the 2008 Kyiv local election.
The party won 40 seats in the 2012 Ukrainian parliamentary election.
In the 2014 parliamentary election, 30% of the Petro Poroshenko Bloc election list was filled by members of UDAR (as non-partisan) and UDAR leader Klitschko topped that list. The Petro Poroshenko Bloc won the election with 132 seats. UDAR officially merged into the Petro Poroshenko Bloc on 28 August 2015.
In May 2019 Klitschko announced that UDAR would take part independently in the 2019 Ukrainian parliamentary election. In this election UDAR did compete as an independent party again, but only in 15 single-mandate constituencies and it failed to win any seats.
In the 2020 Kyiv local election UDAR won 30 of the 120 seats of the Kyiv City Council. In the same election Klitschko was reelected as Mayor of Kyiv with 50.52% of the votes.
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History
Political Party "European Capital"
The Political Party "European Capital" was registered in March 2005 (its party-leader was Ukrainian businessman Lev Partshaladze) and the party gained 0.04% of the votes during the Ukrainian parliamentary elections 2006; the party did not participate in the 2007 Ukrainian parliamentary elections. In February 2009 the party renamed itself Political Party "New Country". Lev Partshaladze was elected into the Kyiv City Council for the Vitaliy Klychko Bloc in 2008, but expelled from the faction, for repeatedly voting differently from the faction, on 2 December 2010.
Ukrainian Democratic Alliance for Reform
On a party congress on 24 April 2010, the party "New Country" (the name that "European Capital" had adopted 14 months earlier)) renamed itself once more to "Ukrainian Democratic Alliance for Reform" and elected boxer Vitali Klitschko as its leader. The party officially became Ukrainian Democratic Alliance for Reform (UDAR) of Vitali Klitschko mid-July 2010.
During the 2010 Ukrainian local elections the party won about 400 representatives in municipalities and Oblast Councils (regional parliaments).
The Bloc of Vitali Klitschko faction in the Kyiv City Council changed its name to UDAR of Vitali Klitschko in February 2011. The party has a strong popularity in Kyiv.
In September 2011 party leader Klitschko stated that the party was considering the possibility of merging with other political parties before contending in the 2012 Ukrainian parliamentary elections. In December 2011 UDAR of Vitali Klitschko and Civil Position where negotiating a unification. But Civil Position eventionally joined Batkivshchyna during these elections.
UDAR became a partner of the Christian Democratic Union of Germany in November 2011. Udar is supported by the German government and the Konrad Adenauer Foundation and received support in particular from Angela Merkel and also politicians from the conservative European People's Party. According to information gained by the German magazine DER SPIEGEL, the target was to "set up Klitschko purposefully as a new strong man in Kiew - in order to counter this way the Kremlin's growing influence". Support consisted in logistics, training and joint performances. Assistance was also promised by Christoph Heusgen, Ronald Pofalla and Guido Westerwelle.
UDAR did not join the Dictatorship Resistance Committee; but on 22 January 2012 it did sign an agreement on joint actions with that alliance.
Starting in March 2010 the party's popularity in opinion polls reached a level almost twice as high as the election threshold (which was raised to 5% in November 2011). The election list of the party was a mixture of candidates who used to represent parties from all over the political spectrum of Ukraine.
Merge into the Petro Poroshenko Bloc
On 2 September Kovalchuk stated that since his party and Petro Poroshenko Bloc had agreed to "joint participation in parliamentary elections" on 29 March 2014 the two parties were "in discussion" about "the format" for how to do so in the (late) October 2014 Ukrainian parliamentary election. On 15 September it became clear that 30% of the Petro Poroshenko Bloc election list would be filled by members of UDAR and that UDAR leader Vitali Klitschko is at the top of this list, Klitschko vowed not to resign as incumbent Mayor of Kyiv. Petro Poroshenko Bloc went on to win the 2014 Ukrainian parliamentary election with 132 seats; surpassing the runner up People's Front which won 82 seats. However, People's Front did perform better than the Petro Poroshenko Bloc with 0.33% in the nationwide election under party lists (22.14% against 21.81%) but the party did win 69 constituency seats while People's Front won only 18 constituencies.
On 28 August 2015 Petro Poroshenko Bloc and UDAR merged into 1 party, Petro Poroshenko Bloc. At the unifying congress (of 28 August 2015) Klitschko was elected as leader of this party.
In 2017 UDAR was still registered as a political party and it employed two persons. According to former UDAR member and Ukrainian lawmaker Dmytro Belotserkovets it was necessary that "the party performs only the technical functions necessary in terms of Ukrainian legislation."
Return as a political party
On 18 May 2019 party leader Klitschko announced that the party would take part in the 2019 Ukrainian parliamentary election.
On 4 June Klitschko offered former president of Georgia Mikheil Saakashvili to join the leadership of his party and to take part in the July 2019 early parliamentary elections with UDAR, Saakashvili turned down the offer.
In the July 2019 Ukrainian parliamentary election the party only competed in 15 single-mandate constituencies. It failed to win any seats. The party's most successful candidate was Yuriy Solovei who won 14.83% of the votes in constituency 89 located in Sniatyn (Ivano-Frankivsk Oblast). Its second most successful candidate, Valentyn Mondryivskyi, gained 4.84% of the votes in Kyiv's Podilskyi District.
In the election for Mayor of Kyiv of the 2020 Kyiv local election UDAR nominated incumbent mayor Klitschko as their candidate. Klitschko was last reelected in the election with 50.52% of the votes, in the first round of the election. UDAR won 30 Kyiv City Council seats in the 2020 Kyiv local election. In total in the whole of Ukraine the party gained 187 deputies (0.43% of all available mandates). In the elections for the Kyiv Oblast Council the party did not win any seats after finishing 9th place in the election.
Ideology and political positions
UDAR tends to avoid sensitive and polarising subjects and focuses instead on popular topics, such as more empowerment to ordinary Ukrainians and a ruthless campaign against corruption, the indifference of the authorities, the lack of local governance, inequality, and poverty. The party wants to "unleash the power of the state and provide conditions for welfare".
The party is in favor of the Association Agreement between Ukraine and the European Union (EU). It has made no stance on a possible NATO membership of Ukraine.
UDAR wants to overcome social inequality with "the abandonment of the idea of cheap labor".
In education, the party wants to bring education in Ukraine to "European standards" by "development of external testing and monitoring the quality of education". UDAR wants to return to a 12-year compulsory secondary education with specialized training in the last two classes and three cycles of learning in higher education—bachelor's degree, master's degree and postgraduate. It also wants to guarantee autonomy of educational institutions by legislation.
The party wants to combat corruption in Ukraine with more transparency and the creation of an independent anti-corruption agency.
UDAR wants to reduce the number of state agencies in order "to minimize the interaction of the citizen with an official". And it wants to simplify procedures for registering property. It wants to reduce the number of taxes from 23 to 7 and to generally simplify the taxing system. "Owners of the land for agricultural purposes" should only be citizens of Ukraine.
UDAR wants to abolish the privileges of the Chairman of the Verkhovna Rada (Ukraine's parliament) and former Presidents of Ukraine and to reduce benefits for current parliamentarians.
The party has pledged to "reboot" the court system, and "reinforce the control of the public over elections".