Interior Affairs Minister Yurii Lutsenko, who is the leader of the People's Self-Defense public movement and a member of the parliamentary faction of the Our Ukraine-People's Self-Defense bloc (OU-PSD), has denied that the movement is planning to quit the OU-PSD.
Lutsenko was speaking at a People's Self-Defense forum.
"We will be a component part of this bloc, no matter how unpopular it may be," Lutsenko said.
According to him, the fact that the People's Self-Defense public movement and the OU-PSD jointly contested the 2007 parliamentary elections enabled them to prevent re-election of Viktor Yanukovych as Ukraine's prime minister.
"Because, at the time, we did a national thing, we stopped the revenge of Yanukovych and those forces that were behind him by sacrificing our personal image and rating," Lutsenko said.
According to him, the creation of the People's Self-Defense party will ensure that its opinion is taken into account when the bloc is making decisions.
"Therefore, we will work in the Our Ukraine-People's Self-Defense bloc today, but any of its actions will be considered from the viewpoint of People's Self-Defense. There will be no irresponsibility and stupid decisions, especially in the name of the OU-PSD. There will be the position of Our Ukraine, [the Rukh-Ukrainska Pravytsia bloc], and People's Self-Defense," Lutsenko said.
He also said that he did not intend to become the leader of the People's Self-Defense party because, according to the law, he could not belong to any political party.
As Ukrainian News earlier reported, Oleh Novykov, the deputy head of the Forward Ukraine! Party, which renamed itself as the People's Self-Defense party on May 16, earlier said that the People's Self-Defense party was planning to quit the Our Ukraine-People's Self-Defense bloc.
