MP leaves “Servants of the People over renaming his city to Sheptytsky
On September 19, the Verkhovna Rada passed a bill to rename several cities and districts, including the city of Chervonohrad in the Lviv region to Sheptytsky.
MP Yuriy Kamelchuk decided to leave the "Servant of the People" party following the parliamentary vote to rename over 300 localities. Kamelchuk criticized the decision by the Rada leadership to change the name of his hometown, Chervonohrad, to Sheptytsky, in honor of the Metropolitan of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church, Andriy Sheptytsky. He reported this on his Facebook account.
"Yesterday, there was a behind-the-scenes coordination meeting of the factions. Today, they held a session of the Committee on State Governance. Yesterday, there were 333 localities in the resolution; today, there are 328. Five are still under discussion. Unfortunately, Chervonohrad is not among them," he wrote.
Kamelchuk noted that he had asked to be given the floor during the discussion of the resolution, but his request was ignored.
"I believe the community might have been ready to accept the renaming, but under one condition – involving the community in the process. Instead, despite numerous appeals and thousands of signatures, is this what democracy looks like, forced through?" he remarked.
He acknowledged that "Andriy Sheptytsky is a very respectable and authoritative figure. A street in Chervonohrad has long been named after him. In fact, I am registered in that street. But in this case, a historical figure has become a hostage to non-transparent processes in the City Council and the Verkhovna Rada."
The MP stated that he "cannot agree with such an approach by the leadership of the 'Servant of the People' party" and thus submitted his resignation.
As reported by the UOJ, earlier, the head of the Office of the President of Ukraine, Andriy Yermak, during a phone conversation with the Vatican's Secretary of State, Cardinal Pietro Parolin, emphasized that "the Ukrainian people are awaiting" the beatification of former UGCC head Andriy Sheptytsky.
However, the Yad Vashem Holocaust Memorial and Museum reminded that Sheptytsky welcomed the Nazi occupiers, and his "actions contributed to Ukrainians joining the ranks of those who killed Jewish families".
