Vesti.ua We figured out why parties need a youth wing
Following the example of other major parties in parliament, Servant of the People has decided to develop a youth wing. This is a rather odd decision, considering that almost half of the Servant of the People faction is already quite young, making it the youngest in the history of Ukrainian parliamentarianism.
This has already sparked online sarcasm: they say they'll start recruiting people to join "Ze!Youth" starting in kindergarten. Given the experience of "Young Regions" and Poroshenko's current "Solidarity Youth," one might suspect that young people will simply be used to participate in protests, performances, and to dispel social media posts.
Vesti.ua investigated why parties need a youth wing.
ZeMolodezhka
Servant of the People party leader Oleksandr Kornienko announced that it is creating a youth wing. He stated that the party's youth wing will be "a community of active and creative people who share the ideas and principles of President Volodymyr Zelenskyy."
According to Kornienko, the party will focus on informing and communicating with young people, explaining political processes to their peers in "simple terms." He said the initiator and coordinator of "Ze!Molodezhka" was MP Oleksandr Sanchenko, who took over Iryna Venediktova's seat in the Rada after she became head of the Prosecutor General's Office. Sanchenko, incidentally, has long been cultivating young people. For example, his TikTok account is listed as his official website on the Verkhovna Rada website. He also organized the Atlas Weekend music festival and even recorded a legislative rap about his initiative, which they want to implement within the youth movement. He himself said that after this rap, he felt like a performer who had long since fallen from the musical Olympus—Justin Bieber.
Kornienko stated that the youth team will implement the law "On the Fundamentals of Youth Policy," which Sanchenko proposed back in June 2020.
Interestingly, the majority of MPs from the mono-majority party themselves fall within the generally accepted European standards for defining the age of youth. Except for a few dozen MPs, SN is a fully-fledged youth organization. Despite this, such a "young team" needs to develop its own wing to become institutionalized—any serious political force that has entrenched itself in power so strongly eventually begins to acquire various satellite organizations. These are regional forces or, for example, youth or women's conglomerates (SN will definitely not create a separate women's wing, lest they be accused of sexism).
"I think they're facing a pressing issue of party building. Given the less-than-stellar results in the local elections. So, they're raising the question of the future of this political project... They've decided to follow the example of other parties and create a youth organization. Although, in my opinion, this isn't the primary task in terms of party building that Servant of the People needs," political scientist Andriy Zolotarev told Vesti.ua.
Servant of the People MPs hasn't yet commented on the creation of the future youth wing. Sanchenko claims he'll share all the details in the future, while other MPs joke that they're no longer young and therefore aren't involved in the matter. Servant of the People MP Mykola Tyshchenko even stated in a comment to our correspondent that the Kyiv regional youth wing has been operating for several months.
Bot farms, titushki, rating boosting
The idea of creating a kind of advanced "Komsomol" isn't new. All major parties have them. For example, the Opposition Platform — For Life (OPZZh) has two youth wings, one of which, "Patriots for Life," became famous in August of this year when members of the organization were attacked by right-wing radicals and the National Corps. A meeting between the so-called "left" and "right" factions resulted in a shootout: a minibus carrying party members was fired upon with a non-lethal weapon. It's worth noting that "Patriots for Life" is dominated by rather strong men, athletes. In February of this year, police even detained party members on suspicion of planning unsanctioned protests. This wing is led by MP Ilya Kiva.
The second organization under the auspices of the opposition—the Opposition Platform—For Life Youth Wing—in addition to jointly delivering food and medicine to lonely people with Oksana Marchenko, attends rallies and protests, some even with very colorful performances. For example, in November 2020, the Opposition Platform—For Life youth group staged a protest outside the US Embassy against external control. At the protest, a woman in a traditional Ukrainian costume was led on a leash by a man wearing a mask of American billionaire George Soros.
https://youtu.be/7seJaF81Th8
European Solidarity also has a youth wing—officially, it's called "Solidarity Youth." They send sweets to orphans on holidays and, like young members of the Opposition Platform—For Life, organize protests and rallies. For example, recently in Zaporizhzhia, the regional branch of "Solidarity Youth" co-organized an event in support of far-right leader Serhiy Sternenko. There are also unofficial youth parties that associate themselves with the EU and Poroshenko. For example, "Demokratichna Sokyra," which targets people under 30, advertised their party on adult websites, held online marches, and distributed meme-filled brochures instead of campaigning. They try their best to deny their ties to the EU, yet Poroshenko still funds them. Moreover, after one of the party members stated that the “hetman” was trying to rake in the entire right-wing crowd, “Demsokira” began apologizing for his words and expelled him from the party.
The "Youth" branch of the Party of Regions was also very well-known. "Young Regions" is a celebrated organization that has become almost a household name. Back then, members of its wing would attend rallies and marches that were ideologically advantageous to the then-government. Furthermore, several members of the organization were even suspected of beating journalists in Bila Tserkva and the high-profile murder of Oksana Makar. Maksym Prysyazhnyuk, who was sentenced to 15 years for Makar's murder, was an active member of "Young Regions." At the time, it was believed that the "Youth" branch of the Party of Regions was created to find homes for the children of influential party members and officials.
Moreover, several years ago, Vesti.ua journalists discovered that Young Regions campaign staff were used to create hundreds of online accounts—meaning the young politicians were directly involved in a network of bot farms.
"I think that if the SN party does move into the political arena, they will participate in protests and rallies. Almost all youth organizations recruit their members as extras," says Zolotarev, adding that the party's leadership has another goal in creating a new wing. "They're trying to show that the SN project is viable, that it's all necessary and important, and that it will only continue to grow. Even though everyone knows the ratings are falling," the expert says.
In the subject: A criminal case against Servant of the People. How Zelensky will save his party from corruption charges.
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