"I would like to announce my decision to leave the Social Democratic Party," Kovalenko wrote on social media on Tuesday.

The 2019 motorsport athlete of the year said that the decision was motivated by changes in the party's overall stances over last year.

"I joined a party which main principles were solidarity and tolerance. Intelligent discussion, honesty, respect for others - regardless of their gender, race, and even convictions went without saying. But lately the party's approach and political activity has turned completely opposite of those values," justified Kovalenko.

"I've been amazed for a year about the complete lack of ideology and values, which has been replaced by looking for conflict and political technology," she added.

"As it became clear, SDE is okay with dividing the people of Tallinn based on their nationality into people of Nõmme and Lasnamäe. We're also not ashamed of attacking women, whether it be a deputy mayor or former party members," Kovalenko added.

She wrote the epidemic and its' complexity was abused to achieve maximum political gain, and not to consolidate society itself.

"In place of productive discussion, we have just had ugly criticism towards everything the city government was planning to do. In addition to that, there also appeared to be a desire to present city government solutions as our own. Proposals and criticisms become so prevalent, that obvious conflict is not noticed," she said.

Kovalenko said she does not plan on joining another party, but will continue working in Tallinn city council.

She joined SDE in 2017 to stand as a candidate in municipal elections in Tallinn and received 392 votes.

In 2019, Kovalenko also stood as candidate to be elected to the Riigikogu. ERR News wrote in February 2019 that while she had spent over €40,000 of her own funds on the campaign, she only received 357 votes.

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