Calls for general strike
Yushchenko calls for general strikes shutting down factories, schools and transportation to protest the Central Election Commission’s decision to call the 2004 Ukraine presidential election in favor of Yanukovych. Yushchenko addresses supporters in Maidan (Independence) Square rallying under orange banners, the color of his campaign:
[This decision] puts Ukraine on the verge of civil conflict … With this decision, they want to put us on our knees