People's Union Still Willing to Work with Savisaar
While Estonia's major parliamentary parties have been quick to distance themselves from, if not outright slam, Edgar Savisaar and his Centre Party for alleged involvement in soliciting political financing from Russia, one small party, the People's Union, has said it's keeping its doors open for cooperation.
"Let's put this way: the fact is we can't rule out cooperation with anyone," the party's Chairman Andrus Blok told ERR, explaining that the People's Union would cooperate with any political powers, including the Centre, that support a similar agenda. "We need to cooperate with them. Estonia is a rather small country and we should all learn how to work together."
On the subject of the Centre Party's financing scandal, Blok said his party couldn't make an assessment before all the facts were in.
By contrast, Reform, IRL and the Social Democrats have all declared that they wouldn't work with the Centre Party under Savisaar's leadership, uudised.err.ee reported. A leader of the Greens has said that their cooperation with the Centre Party has been minimal and is likely to stay that way in the wake of the recent scandal.
The People's Union however has less to lose than its rivals. Once a major player on Estonia's political stage, it has seen its support dwindle in recent years due to scandals, splitting and distasteful bickering among the leadership. A December TNS-Emor poll put its support level at just 4 percent. A minimum 5 percent vote is needed for representation in Parliament.