Ene Ergma Announces Retirement at the End of Term
IRL's Ene Ergma, a member of parliament since 2003, says she will not run for office in the next election in 2015 and will step back from politics.
“I am captivated as long as I have a challenge. But I don't any more. I know the situation very well and am not interested any more,” Ergma, who turned 70 this year, told Naisteleht.
She said she had made up her mind before she was ousted as the Speaker of Parliament by the new ruling coalition.
Ergma studied physics and astronomy at the University of Tartu and in Moscow, receiving a PhD in 1984. She worked as a scientist and academic, becoming a professor in 1988 and later the deputy head of the Estonian Academy of Sciences.
She successfully ran for Parliament in 2003, after joining Res Publica, one half of IRL, in 2002. She then spent 10 years as the speaker, also coming close to becoming the nation's president in 2006, when she collected 65 votes in Parliament, just shy of the two-thirds needed. She only ran in the first round, as the sole candidate, to be replaced by Toomas Hendrik Ilves in the next rounds.