Survey: EuroMaidan is grassroots movement, in danger of being ‘radicalized’

An Ilko Kucheriv Democratic Initiatives Foundation survey of 1,037 protesters
on and around Independence Square conducted on Dec. 7-8 found that of those who
came from other regions in Ukraine, only 8 percent said they were there because
their visit was organized by a political party of civil society organization.

The remaining 92 percent said they came on their own
initiative, the survey found.

As a whole, 70
percent of respondents said that the main reason why they came to protest was
because of the Nov. 30 beating of demonstrators by police. Nearly 54 percent
said they are protesting because Yanukovych didn’t sign the association
agreement with the European Union.

Calls from the
political opposition only compelled five percent of respondents to join the
protests.

Ten protesters
remain in police custody as of Dec. 12.

“If the government will radicalize the situation, it is
likely that the Maidan will be radicalized because we observe that there is a
significant number of people ready for more drastic methods,” said Iryna
Bekeshkina, director of Democratic Initiatives. “There definitely will be
consequences (of the forcible dispersion of the Maidan). People are
radically-minded, and if they act – and you don’t need the majority of people
for the situation to get worse – just a critical mass (is needed) and that mass
is there.”

Among
their main demands, some 82 percent said they want protesters who were taken
into custody freed. Another 80 percent want the government to resign, while 75
percent want Yanukovych to resign and for pre-term presidential elections to be
held.

Only
38 percent are calling for imprisoned ex-Prime 
Minister Yulia Tymoshenko to be freed.

“You see, it is possible to measure the temperature,
but no one knows what cause it to rise (or fall). No sociologist could have predicted
such a completely stupid government action as the brutal beating (on Nov. 30)
of defenseless, unarmed students in the area and we can see that the main
motive was to do exactly that,” noted Bekeshkina.

Protesters, according to the survey’s demographic
information, are younger than the national average with 36 being the average
age. Forty nine percent of demonstrators are aged 30-54, while 38 percent are
aged 15 to 29. 

Among which demands put forth on the Maidan do you support? (Mark each demand that is important to you)

 Source: Ilko Kucheriv Democratic Initiatives
Foundation survey of 1,037 protesters on Independence Square taken on Dec. 7-8
and conducted together with the Kyiv International Institute of Sociology.

Kyiv Post editor Mark Rachkevych can be reached at rachkevych@kyivpost.com.