Where are the deputies and parties that represent your political interests? They don’t exist. Or almost don’t exist, apart from a handful in the State Duma and regional legislative assemblies.
It’s astonishing: a huge number of people in this country believe that Russia should develop along a European path, and that we need alternation of power, independent courts, and free media—yet there is not a single party represented in the legislature that supports these four simple principles without five hundred caveats.
That is exactly what we discussed today at a briefing by the Democratic Coalition held at the Anti-Corruption Foundation (ACF) office.
Our number one task is to secure political representation for people with democratic views, who have gone 13 years without having their own party in the State Duma.
(A short video of my remarks)
The full video of speeches by Konstantin Merzlikin, Vladimir Milov, and Leonid Volkov, including their answers to questions, is available here.
Our plan: to contest the 2016 State Duma elections on the basis of PARNAS.
Our immediate plans are six election campaigns in three regions: Kaluga Oblast, Kostroma Oblast, and Novosibirsk Oblast. In each of these regions, both regional and city elections are being held under the party-list system.
These are three very different regions where we will test programs, approaches, and campaign techniques that can be applied nationwide in 2016.
Most importantly, all coalition members agreed to form “people’s lists” — candidates will get onto them through open, fair primaries.
We are firmly determined to eliminate the gap, traditional for democratic parties, between party insiders and the people. There must be no appointments to the list by Moscow bosses. Competition and voting by residents of the respective regions should determine who belongs on the list.
In other words, a “people’s list” in Novosibirsk Oblast would, conventionally speaking, consist of Novosibirsk residents chosen for the list by Novosibirsk residents, speaking about Novosibirsk’s problems.
I am confident that this approach will begin to restore citizens’ interest in politics and will bring volunteers into election campaigns who are ready to help. Everyone will be able to say: the Democratic Coalition’s list is my list; it was formed with my participation. I vote for it and campaign for it.
We’ll get to work this summer. Join us.