The Parliamentary Opposition in Relation to the Euromaidan in Ukraine

Abstract

The purpose of this article was to identify the main factors that prevented the leaders of the parliamentary opposition from becoming leaders of the Euromaidan. To achieve this goal, the following methods were used: historical, data analysis, case study. As a result of the research, the following reasons have been identified that neither Arseniy Yatsenyuk, Vitaly Klitschko or Oleh Tyahnybok became the leaders of Euromaidan: 1) opposition parties were not the initiators of Euromaidan, and, therefore, were not prepared for it; 2) leaders of parliamentary opposition parties were focused mainly on future presidential elections; 3) opposition leaders failed to meet protesters’ demands, i.e. to select one candidate from among themselves in the future presidential elections; and to independently select one leader of the Euromaidan from among its members.