Kernes Bloc — Successful Kharkiv

Kernes Bloc — Successful Kharkiv (Блок Кернеса — Успішний Харків) is a political party of Ukraine, registered on April 12, 2016. The founder and first head of the political party was Hennadiy Kernes, who created it with the aim of participating in local elections in the Kharkiv Oblast, both in the City Council and in the Oblast Council.

History
In 2016, the party was officially registered under the name "Unitary European Ukraine", therefore, Hennadiy Kernes himself had nothing to do with it. At the end of 2019, the party was renamed into "Kernes Bloc — Successful Kharkiv", after which many rumors began to circulate around the party about its participation in the 2020 local elections, led by Mayor of Kharkiv Hennadiy Kernes, which he himself did not deny.

Already in early 2020, Hennadiy Kernes announced that he was going to the elections to the Kharkiv City Council with his own bloc, without the Trust Deeds project, which he led together with Gennadiy Trukhanov and the Opposition Bloc, which did not participate in the local elections as a united front. in favor of small electoral blocs such as the Vadim Boychenko Bloc, Vilkul's Ukrainian Perspective Bloc, Volodymyr Buriak's Unity Party, and Gennadiy Trukhanov's Trust Deeds party.

In the 2020 Kharkiv local elections, Kernes won the first round of voting with a result of 61.2%, and the Kernes Bloc – Successful Kharkiv received a result of 37.98% in the Kharkiv City Council and 30.1% in the Kharkiv Oblast Council.

Kernes died on 17 December 2020. The snap mayoral election in Kharkiv to determinate Kernes successor was set on 31 October 2021. In this election Kernes Bloc — Successful Kharkiv nominated Ihor Terekhov as its mayoral candidate. Terekhov had been acting Kharkiv Mayor since 24 December 2020. Terekhov officially won the election with 50.66% of the votes. At an extraordinary session of the Kharkiv City Council on 11 November 2021 Terekhov was sworn in as the new Mayor of Kharkiv.

From the first days of Russian invasion of Ukraine, the Kernes Bloc – Successful Kharkiv took a pro-Ukrainian position. Despite the position of the political party, collaborationism was widespread among its members. Thus, the mayor of Balakliia, Ivan Stolbovy, agreed to cooperate with the Russian Armed Forces. Representatives of local councils from the Kernes Bloc began cooperation with the Russian administration.

Ideology
The party declares 30 strategic steps for the development of the Kharkiv Oblast and Kharkiv itself. In relation to the central government, it positions itself as the opposition, and between Hennadiy Kernes and the former head of the Kharkiv Regional State Administration Oleksiy Kucher there were quite tense relations. According to political scientists, the party is regionalist in ideology.

The party was formed mainly from former members of the Party of Regions and took a moderate pro-Russian position. After the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the party adopted a pro-Ukrainian position,  despite the fact that collaborationism was widespread among party members.

Many opponents of Kernes, accused him of establishing his personal power in Kharkiv, corruption and budget embezzlement on various city projects. In particular, Kernes was accused of creating a mafia clan in Kharkiv and putting enormous pressure on small and medium-sized businesses.

Leadership
Until December 17, 2020, the leader of the party was the mayor of Kharkiv, Hennadiy Kernes, after his death, the party was headed by Ihor Terekhov.