The party's "night of the long knives" sees former Riigikogu speaker and current MP Henn Põlluaas and MP and historian Jaak Valge kicked out of the party, along with Silver Kuusik, the party's Tartu city council chair and who had mounted a leadership challenge to Martin Helme, and Helle Kullerkupp, EKRE's Pärnu regional chair.

Põlluaas and Valge had backed Kuusik's leadership challenge while Kullerkupp had been charged with mismanagement of the party's affairs in Pärnu, charges she rejects.

The move comes following a European elections campaign in which the party retained its MEP seat, but did not expand on that.

EKRE is also holding a party congress in Jõhvi on Sunday, so the expulsions likely mean Martin Helme will run for re-election as leader unopposed.

The EKRE board ruled on Tuesday, following several hours' deliberation, to expel former Riigikogu speaker Henn Põlluaas, MP and historian Jaak Valge, and EKRE's Tarty city council leader Silver Kuusik.

The latter had issued a leadership challenge against Martin Helme, from the party, while Põlluaas, Valge and Kullerkupp had reportedly backed Kuusik.

Martin Helme said after Tuesday's meeting that it had been "The hardest meeting of my life as party leader. I am not at all satisfied with the shape we are in."

"After a very lengthy discussion, which did not get too out of hand or emotional, we concluded that we cannot continue alongside each other in the same party," Helme went on.

"This smaller faction no longer consists of EKRE members," he added, referring to the three MPs who will, for the last few days before the Riigikogu goes on its summer recess, not sit with any political party faction.

Helme said Põlluaas, Kuusik, and Valge were expelled due to damage to the party's reputation they had caused, and also damage to EKRE's campaign ahead of the recent European elections.

Additionally EKRE's Pärnu district chief Helle Kullerkupp was expelled for what Helme called repeated and serious financial violations.

"We understand that it is unfortunate to force a group of well-known people and candidates to leave the party a few days before the [party] congress, but all the other options we considered would have been even worse," Helme continued.

"Above all else, we have seen in Estonian politics how endless internal conflicts can end up, as has been seen with Isamaa; we have seen how internal conflict has ended for the Center Party too."

"The majority of the board was firmly of the opinion that we should not let the situation escalate," Helme added.

"Our views on our direction and how we do things were no longer reconcilable. /.../ This was an irreconcilable conflict between two completely different visions," the EKRE leader went on.

Põlluaas: EKRE is going under

Henn Põlluaas had doubled down on his earlier statements to the effect that he heard EKRE's founder, Mart Helme, father of Martin, refer approvingly to Russia waging a "holy war" in Ukraine.

Põlluaas said: "This was definitely the case as he quoted Patriarch Kirill (head of the Russian Orthodox Church – ed.) that Russia is waging a 'holy war' and so on."

"He rounded off with the sentence 'and I support that.' I talked about it later with several party members who were also extremely shocked by the words, but who up to now had not ventured to admit that," Põlluaas went on.

"But unfortunately, the situation is such that lies and demagoguery were used to first eliminate a competitor for the party leadership position, plus their supporters were eliminated, and all sorts of fabricated accusations were imputed to us, none of which have any basis," said Põlluaas.

In Põlluaas' opinion, the EKRE board shot itself in the foot with its decision Tuesday.

He said: "I think EKRE is going under. But we will continue to work to ensure that the national conservative line continues, to stand for the Estonian state and people, for normality."

"We will continue our political activities; Jaak Valge and I are still Riigikogu MPs and they do not have the authority to expel us from there. So, they have only shot themselves in the foot," Põlluaas went on.

Valge: More people will leave

Jaak Valge, one of the expelled members, said he believes that more people will now quit EKRE in the near future, due to its authoritarian leadership, image as being family-run, and abrasive communication style.

Valge said: "We have been trying to change things for a long time, but this time we found that things can no longer be changed by ordinary means. Those ordinary means were that we sent Martin Helme memos on what ought to be changed."

"But then the elections were looming and, as we know, the congress is the highest organ of the party, so the idea was to let the congress decide what the exact next direction should be. But we also considered the likelihood that the dictatorship had already gone too far for us to let that congress decide," Valge elaborated.

"In the meantime, we will continue as independent national conservative fighters, and perhaps later we will join forces," he added in respect of what might happen next.

Kuusik: The reasons were subjective fabrications

"Our decision-making in EKRE is over for now and those who remain will continue to decide. The membership of myself, Jaak Valge, and Henn Põlluaas in EKRE is terminated. /.../ This decision creates strong turbulence in Estonian politics as well as internally within the party, and I believe we will observe these wounds caused by today's decision of the board for some time," said Kuusik after the meeting to ERR.

Kuusik called the reasons for their expulsion subjective fabrications. "They are not based on any truth, so it was simply a strong suppression," he said.

EKRE also on Tuesday expelled Helle Kullerkupp, head of its Pärnu district, on a charge of repeatedly disobeying party leader edicts.

Kullerkupp said she had defended herself: "As much as I could. But an hour before the meeting, I was handed a draft by the audit committee, which I had not read, was not able to review, then they started making accusations based off that."

"These accusations are well-known. Martin Helme is also a very good talker, he speaks at a machine gun rate, but everything he says is false. This is all his vision and it is stuck in his head, what he says. So I think this man should in fact start taking responsibility for his words and statements," said Kullerkupp.

Kullerkupp also said she is considering suing for defamation. "I have been publicly defamed and accused of things I have not done."

Jaak Madison remains party member for meantime

The leadership of the party has also been criticized by the freshly re-elected MEP Jaak Madison, who has not been expelled from EKRE and has not left either.

Helme, however, noted that Madison's criticism that EKRE did not support him financially for his campaign was a one-sided view.

Helme said: "The reason why Madison was last on the candidate list and not first was because he had not shared his financial resources with the party during his five years as an MEP. This complaint was repeatedly made to him."

"If he complains that the party did not support him financially, then during five years he received very substantial resources, but which he kept only for himself," said Helme.

EKRE is due to hold party leader party leader elections on Sunday in Jõhvi.

Martin Helme running for re-election while Silver Kuusik was also to run.

Kuusik had the support of EKRE Riigikogu MPs Henn Põlluaas and Jaak Valge, who as noted are now expelled.

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