The Growth Party and the New People form a political alliance

The Growth Party (PR) and the New People (NL) formed a political alliance. As their leaders Boris Titov and Aleksey Nechaev explained at a joint press conference on Tuesday, the association is, in fact, an informal electoral bloc: party members intend to abandon competition in elections and support each other’s candidates. In addition, the union should become a platform for a broad coalition of “all progressive forces in Russia” ready to resist “archaic” political trends and initiatives, in particular, the restoration of a planned economic system. According to experts, the very fact of unification in the mass consciousness will be perceived positively, while the “big brother” in the bloc will be the “New People”, and the Growth Party will add status to them.

The joint press conference at the TASS press center on June 27 was opened by Alexei Nechaev. He noted the informal nature of the union, which will become the basis for a broad coalition of “all the progressive forces of Russia”: “Rebranding and colors are not so important now, the question of what will happen to Russia is more important, how can we make it remain a modern country, so it developed so that economic independence, technological independence would really be built.” At the same time, the leader of the IP called for joint opposition to political forces that “drag us into the archaic, are engaged in resentment, chewing on old feelings and symbols.”

Boris Titov, leader of the Party of Regions, who since 2012 has been the president’s commissioner for the protection of entrepreneurs’ rights, supported his colleague and directly pointed out the risk of restoring the command economic system: “We see with great apprehension the possibility of a return to our “bright” past. Not only in speeches, but also in actions, we see the exact outlines of a planned economy, a Soviet system. And we understand that this has really become an actual agenda.” According to the party member, such a rollback will lead to a noticeable drop in the standard of living of citizens, a shortage of goods and, worst of all, to instability, unrest and bloodshed. “Today, seeing this real threat, we unite to counter it,” concluded Mr. Titov. He defined the participants of the new union as pragmatic people advocating progress and development.

Both politicians stressed several times that their parties profess common ideological principles: the priority of a market economy, the protection of the rights and support of businessmen, the rejection of “prohibitive” lawmaking.

The association itself, Boris Titov, proposed informally calling it a “bloc” (the electoral legislation does not formally allow the formation of blocs).

The two parties intend to develop a common electoral strategy for the upcoming elections, and most importantly for them – not to run candidates against each other. “Therefore, we will nominate united candidates: either due to the fact that one party will not nominate candidates, while the other will, or, if both parties have already put forward, we will withdraw in favor of the strongest,” Mr. Nechaev explained. According to him, this also applies to the elections of mayors and governors. Party members still refuse to voice any specifics – negotiations on each of the subjects, according to Boris Titov, have just started. But the leader of the Party of Regions does not rule out even now that supporters of his party in some regions may nominate from the IP, since its candidates do not need to collect signatures of voters for this. At the same time, the procedure for coordinating such nominees has not yet been formalized. “We do not make it all dependent on formal procedures. This is a friendly association. Together we decided to go to the polls, but formally this is not prescribed in any way, ”Boris Titov explained.

The leaders of the new association do not yet see the need to merge the parties. An informal union is the most comfortable form for working in the upcoming elections, while even the legal procedure for unification itself can cause unnecessary difficulties, Alexey Nechaev believes. Mechanisms for participation in further campaigns and, in particular, the presidential one in 2024, according to him, have yet to be developed:

“Let’s go through the autumn elections. There are many things that we will see, what our ideas are responding to and how. And we will test a lot of things.”

Boris Titov, in turn, did not rule out either a merger or the possibility of supporting a single candidate in 2024: “Who knows what will happen in the future, how the political situation will develop, how events will develop? So far, we have chosen a period of adaptation to each other for ourselves and we must understand each other. We even represent different generations. While we are very similar, we also have differences.” Of the latter, Mr. Titov noted a generational gap and pointed out that his party is a party of entrepreneurs who “grew up and came out into the light”, while “New People” are young people and businessmen “who have everything ahead” (note that the difference between Alexei Nechaev and Boris Titov is only six years old: the first is 56 years old, the second is 62 years old).

Political scientist Alexander Nemtsev believes that the unification of the two parties can indeed produce a synergistic effect. In his opinion, although the New People are the “big brother” in the family of right-wing liberal parties due to their success in the Duma elections, they lack the status that the PR can give. “There are a large number of bright people in Titov’s party, but they have not established party work. Therefore, their election results are sad,” the expert explains. “The Growth Party will add serious frontmen to the union, and the New People will take over the overall organization of party work — they know how to do it.”

The low electoral potential of the Party of Regions in this context plays almost no role, political scientist Alexander Kynev believes: “The very fact of unification is important. Our mass consciousness perceives such alliances positively, so the very idea that some new allies come to the party will be perceived as a factor in its strengthening. This will attract attention, votes and may attract new candidates and new opportunities.” Therefore, an alliance with the party of Boris Titov will help the NL in elections at all levels and open up opportunities for successful party branding, the expert is sure: “The New People brand itself is quite perishable: how long can you be new? In this sense, it will be possible to move from the novelty of candidates to the novelty of problems, to switch the topic of the new to the topic of development. The union of progressive forces is mentioned. I think everything will revolve around this – progress, common sense, the future.

Grigory Leiba