In a Ukrainian political landscape still largely dominated by traditional parties, a surprising small formation has managed to make its mark in recent years. The Ukrainian Internet Party, founded in 2007, has indeed caught the imagination by presenting Darth Vader, the famous Star Wars character, as a candidate in the 2014 presidential election.
Dressed in his emblematic black armor, the Sith lord made a crashing entry into the race for the presidency with a muscular speech: "I alone can make an empire of our republic, restore its past glory, return its lost territories and its pride." A program worthy of the greatest villains of the galaxy!
Although his candidacy was ultimately rejected for failing to verify his identity, Darth Vader did not say his last word. In the legislative elections of the same year, the Internet Party fielded him again, this time accompanied by equally unlikely characters such as Chewbacca, Padmé Amidala and Yoda. A veritable cabinet of curiosities!
Despite garnering 0.36% of the vote and no seats in Parliament, these outsiders of the political arena have nonetheless helped to bring some levity and whimsy to an election set against a major crisis with Russia. A welcome breath of freshness in the throes of conflict.
The Internet Party did not stop there. In 2015, its members had a statue of Darth Vader installed in Odessa to replace a monument to Lenin, as part of the "de-communization" process. A very ironic dig at Soviet authoritarianism!
Here, then, is a somewhat atypical formation that proves that in politics as elsewhere, a bit of tongue-in-cheek humor is sometimes not a bad thing.
Perchance, CC0, https://perchance.org/
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