Centre Deserters to Form Own Parliamentary Group
Five ex-Centre Party MPs have requested recognition in Parliament under a loose organization which they call the “Union of Democrats.”
The dissidents cannot, according to the rules of Parliament, form an actual faction, which would come with certain perks.
Four MPs deserted the Centre Party last week in protest of the party leadership, which cast out a fifth MP for criticizing the leadership in the media. This left the Centre Party faction with 21 members in the 101-seat legislature.
Although the opposition Centre Party's influence in Parliament is limited, several of the defectors were relatively high-profile figures who have retained their vice chairmanships on parliamentary committees.
But holding onto their Parliament memberships has become an annoyance for their former party. "These people who left and obtained their high posts thanks to the party and faction, are preserving their positions while we have to reduce our ranks,” Centre MP Enn Eesmaa told uudised.err.ee.
"This comes back to the old question: did they enter Parliament because they belonged to a certain party or because they had fantastic individual results. I tend to believe the former,” said Eesmaa, adding that the deserters have created a complicated situation for the party in which MPs must be moved around to new committees.
Ott Tammik