Chair of Isamaa on best practice document
The best practices document approved by the board of opposition party Isamaa refers to options for party members who stand against the party's views to be expelled. Leaders of the party's Parempoolsed faction are critical of the document, while the chair, Helir-Valdor Seeder, admits that the new order partly arose from the Parempoolsed's emergence itself.
Seeder says he will compare the best practice document with the Riigikogu's own best practice document next Tuesday.
"This will create some boundaries, and would invite members of the party to actively discuss within the party and proceed from polite behavior," Seeder told ETV news show 'Aktuaalne kaamera'.
The document states that differences regarding worldview, politics and the party's program will be discussed inside the party itself, and behind closed doors. Involving the press in the party's internal affairs has also been criticized in the document, and is considered unacceptable action. Public confrontation with the party, its views, program is similarly considered as damaging the party's reputation and thus not to be tolerated.
The document cites the party's statute's points, according to which inappropriate actions or damaging the party's reputation may result in a person or persons being dismissed from the party.
"Since the Parempoolsed started (last year - ed.) or even before that, they have been critical of the party's activities. They have opposed the party as a whole , its basis ,manifesto positions, the management, the chairman, and the decisions of different decision-making levels, whether they are at the presidency or at the council level," Seeder said.
Seeder said that he partly sees the need for the document precisely because of the Parempoolsed. On the board of the party, 11 members voted in favor of the best practice document and three against it. Marko Pomerants, a member of the board who is not a member of the Parempoolsed, did not vote yesterday, however, due to a lack of time, but ssays he would have voted against.
"In fact, everything is in the statute, and if people need the help of a lawyer to communicate with each other within a party, then something is obviously wrong. The steam should be placed on communication not on the law," Pomerants said.
The Parempoolsed translates as "Right-wingers", something of a misleading term as, broadly speaking, many of its members represent the more socially liberal wing of the party.
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Editor: Roberta Vaino
