Gallery: EKRE announces Martin Helme number one EU parliament election candidate

Following a party congress Saturday, opposition Conservative People's Party of Estonia (EKRE) has announced its candidate list ahead of the June 9 European Parliament election. Party chair Martin Helme is running in the number one spot, while sitting MEP Jaak Madison is the "anchor man" in ninth and last place.
The list, which under electoral rules can comprise no more than nine candidates as with all other parties, is topped and tailed in the same way has it had been at the last elections to the European Parliament in May 2019, when EKRE won its first European mandate.
Between Helme and Madison, in order are: MPs Anti Poolamets, Helle-Moonika Helme, former Riigikogu speaker Henn Põlluaas, Siim Pohlak, former government ministers Rain Epler and Arvo Aller and Tartu city councilor and social worker Merle Kivest.
The party's candidates all stand first and foremost for a Estonian nation-state and the EU as a union of nation-states.
Helme said: "Our program 'Eesti eest Euroopas' (English: 'For Estonia in Europe') is guided by the principle that we must not allow Brussels to usurp further power from the nation-states."
"We need to regain our sovereignty, establish effective border control, stop green extremism, and restore freedom of thought and speech. Only then will the conditions be created for Estonia to prevail and for Estonians to remain masters of their own land, and for our people's standard of living to rise, so they are not forced to move abroad."
Helme reiterated his earlier statement that EKRE is aiming to pick up two mandates come June, thus doubling its seats tally.
Estonia is treated as a single electoral district at European elections, with seven mandates, up from six pre-Brexit.
The d'Hondt system of proportional representation is used, as it is in Riigikogu and local elections, hence parties paying particularly close attention to the order in which they run their candidates.
EKRE joins the Social Democrats (SDE) in having confirmed its full list for June's elections; the remaining parties will follow in the next three weeks.
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Editor: Mari Peegel, Andrew Whyte