European Solidarity party [Європейська солідарність; Ievropeiska solidarnist]. A Ukrainian political party of the center-right headed since its founding in 2019 by former President of Ukraine Petro Poroshenko; a member of the European People’s Party family. The party’s origins date back to the year 2000 when, as a people’s deputy in the Supreme Council of Ukraine, Poroshenko abandoned the the United Social Democratic Party of Ukraine (SDPU[O]) and created under the name Solidarity a 23-member caucus (fraction) within the Supreme Council. Hence it began as a parliamentary group opposed to one rooted in the electorate. Its orientation at that time was social-democratic. This entity then became part of the Party of Regions grouping. Technically, the Solidarity of Ukraine party was registered in 1997, but had no presence in parliamentary elections until its intraparliamentary inception. In December 2002, Poroshenko led his Solidarity caucus out of the Party of Regions and into Our Ukraine bloc headed by Viktor Yushchenko. Solidarity contested the 2002 elections as part of Yushchenko’s Our Ukraine electoral alliance. It later left Our Ukraine and its 23 parliamentarians continued as a separate faction.

After Petro Poroshenko’s election as president of Ukraine in 2014, Solidarity was reformed under the name the Petro Poroshenko Bloc (BPP) led by Yurii Lutsenko. In the 2014 elections to the Supreme Council of Ukraine, the BPP won 21.8 percent of the PR vote, just behind Arsenii Yatseniuk’s Popular Front. With the addition of members elected in SMDs and floor-crossers, the BPP secured a plurality of 145 seats and Yatseniuk became prime minister.

When Poroshenko lost the presidential election in 2019, the BPP was renamed the European Solidarity party and he was elected as its leader. In the ensuing parliamentary elections, the party received 8.1 percent—second-last out of five—on the PR ballot for 23 seats. At the opening of the session, it held 27 seats. Despite its small contingent and the vendetta pursued against its leader by President Volodymyr Zelensky, European Solidarity’s parliamentary wing made its voice heard in matters such as the non-return of PrivatBank to oligarch Ihor Kolomoisky and the defence of Poroshenko against political persecution. During the full-scale Russo-Ukrainian war, European Solidarity supported the war effort as well as Zelensky’s legitimacy, led a blockade of the Supreme Council proceedings to demand the resignation of the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine, and advocated in favor of Ukraine before European Union leaders. It also participated actively in advising Zelensky on a ceasefire, rebutting US President Donald Trump’s call for election of a new president of Ukraine, and expelled one of its members advocating immediately negotiating peace with Vladimir Putin’s Russian Federation to end the war. European Solidarity fulfilled its role as an opposition party, consistently voting against government resolutions and motions.

In a September 2026 public opinion poll, the party was rated the least bad of the caucuses in the Supreme Council of Ukraine: 38 percent positive (beneficial to Ukraine), 43 percent negative (hindering development). Petro Poroshenko emerged as the most recognized opposition leader (30 percent) in the Supreme Council.

Bohdan Harasymiw
[This article was written in 2026.]