Toom and Kõlvart on European elections: We are definitely not rivals

In a TV interview with ERR, the Center Party's candidates for the European Parliament elections, Mihhail Kõlvart and Jana Toom, refrained from being drawn into any kind of confrontation. Both stressed that if Center were to win a mandate in the elections, it would belong to the party as a whole.
Host Indrek Kiisler began by asking Toom and Kõlvart about the 3.1 percent support which Koos/Vmeste candidate Aivo Peterson now has. Support for Peterson, who is currently being held in custody on treason charges, could have an adverse impact on Center's performance in these elections. According to a recent Kantar Emor survey, the Center Party now has 11 percent support.
Kõlvart said the ratings show that the Center Party will win at least one mandate. However, the question is whether or not Center voters will turn out in force. According to Kõlvart, Isamaa could end up getting Center's second mandate if some of the party's usual votes instead go to Peterson.
"These are protest votes. Probably for those people who are ready to vote for Peterson, there appears to be no choice – they either vote for him or they don't come out," Kõlvart said.
According to a recent survey, support for Kõlvart is at 5.9 percent, while Toom has 3.2 percent.
Kiisler asked Toom if she thought it was natural that Kõlvart's support was almost twice as high as hers. "Of course it is natural," Toom replied.
"If you are trying to create some kind of dispute between us, that will not happen. Mihhail is the chair of the Center Party. Mikhail's popularity is head and shoulders above that everyone else. So I don't see any conflict here. We have joined forces together. We are certainly not rivals," Toom said.
Toom explained her lower support as being down to voter fatigue. "You sit there for 10 years, that helps. Maybe this. Maybe something else. Maybe Mihhail is just a young man and I'm not such a young woman, and that has an effect," Toom said.
Kiisler asked Kõlvart why a layman should go to the European Parliament, referring to the fact that Kõlvart has had no contact with the European Parliament during his spell as Mayor of Tallinn.
Toom answered for Kõlvart, saying that he could handle both the running of the City of Tallinn and the job of an MEP in the European Parliament. "Because I have Kõlvart and Kõlvart has Toom," she said.
If the Center Party were to win one seat in the European Parliament, it would belong to the party as a whole, with the decision about who would go to Brussels taken collectively, Kõlvart explained. "We are working for the future of the party. Who gets the mandate will be decided by the party," Kõlvart said.
"A seat in Brussels is not a big dream for me. I will do whatever the party needs. I think I could manage in the European Parliament," said Kõlvart.
Asked whether it would be better for the future of the party if Kõlvart stayed in Tallinn, Toom said that, as things stand at the moment, that seemed to be the case. "However, things change every day, we don't know what will happen. I'm talking about Estonian politics, it's so turbulent. At the same time, we have also seen how the party was led from Brussels. And the sky doesn't fall down because of it," Toom said.
Kõlvart added that theoretical changes are also possible during the five-year period.
Toom pointed out that from an ideological perspective, there is no difference for voters between here and Kõlvart. "Mihhail and I are absolutely on the same wavelength politically," Toom said.
Kõlvart also added that he believes the Center Party is the only one in Estonia that does not seek confrontation and instead is speaking about increased solidarity in society. "It may sound a bit too much like rhetoric, but it is true," Kõlvart said.
When asked about the differences between the two of them, Kõlvart said that Toom is more Europe-oriented than he is. "Our opinions differ on the issue of unanimity," Kõlvart said.
Both said that further enlargement of European Union would begin to stifle the EU's economic potential.
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Editor: Aleksander Krjukov, Michael Cole