Madison made his remarks the same night in which four leading EKRE members, including two MPs – Henn Põlluaas and Jaak Valge – were ejected from the party after backing a leadership challenge from Silver Kuusik.

Kuusik, the party's Tartu city council chair, has also been expelled.

The developments came days before EKRE is due to meet for a party congress in Jõhvi and at which elections are to be held on the party's leader.

In a written statement issued in the small hours of Wednesday morning, Madison wrote: "This has been an incredibly powerful journey in which a national-conservative movement evolved into a party which has won thousands of hearts. Unfortunately, this journey is ending for me."

"My worldview remains as it was and I will continue doing exactly the same work at the European Parliament as I have been doing, and stand for exactly the same values," he continued.

"I also want to immediately indicate that I am not joining any other party at the moment, and that I will not be criticizing my former home party, of which I was the deputy chair or many years up to now," Madison said, referring to EKRE rather than any party group he would be required to sit with at the Strasbourg parliament.

"The birth of a new national-conservative movement cannot be ruled out, but time will tell," Madison added. "However, people who no longer see their future inside EKRE are welcome to let me know about that. You should feel free to write to me," Madison continued.

Madison referred to the expulsion of Põlluaas, Valge, Kuusik and Kullerkupp as the party's "night of the long knives."

A few days before the regular election of new leaders, the EKRE board convened to discuss internal party tensions and expelled MPs Henn Põlluaas and Jaak Valge, the party's leader at Tartu city council Silver Kuusik, and Pärnu regional district chair Helle Kullerkupp.

Madison continued in his post: "This is unfortunately not the party I joined in 2013."

"This has been the only political party I have been a member of, yet today it has changed beyond recognition. While the party board meeting began promisingly enough, in the end it turned out that the entire strategy had already been decided by certain leaders," Madison continued.

"I was indeed dismayed when, after years of work, eight votes in favor led to the ousting of the party board member and Pärnu district chair Helle Kullerkupp, with six votes against and one abstention."

"We then discussed the election results, and moved on to financial issues, where the party leader gave quite detailed and strong explanations. After a four-and-a-half hour meeting, I had to leave to take part in an ETV broadcast. I did my best, in good faith, to bridge the fissures within the party, and had hoped that after the congress, the party could move forward together," the MEP continued.

"However after the broadcast, I could see that the party board meeting was still ongoing so I hurried back. When I reached the front door, the news came that two of our Riigikogu MPs (one of whom is party deputy chair) and a candidate for party chairman (who may not be the best choice but is still the Tartu district chair and also a party board member) had been expelled. This clarified things that such a step, five days before a party congress, demonstrated a panicked fear over losing the current leverage in the party leadership which allows pushing through any decisions."

Madison thanked his voters in the European Parliament elections. "I know that many supported me because I was the candidate of the Conservative People's Party of Estonia, but at the same time, I know that the majority of the 32,845 voters supported me because of the work I have done over the past five years in the European Parliament and because of my views and worldview. If anyone feels deceived because of this, I apologize, but my worldview does not change in the slightest, although the nature of the party has changed," he added.

Madison elaborated here, charging EKRE or at least some unnamed members of encouraging corruption.

"I have faced accusations from leading members of my own party of not bringing enough money to the party while sitting at the European Parliament. This equates to my refusal to hire staff using the European Parliamentary budget to carry out work which is actually to the benefit of the home party in Estonia," he continued in his post.

"However, this is prohibited. There have been many scandals and court cases on this matter, while if it were detected, the entire salary paid to staff would be demanded back from the MEP, including taxes, and not from those staff or the home party. So I did not want to take a risk of that kind."

"At the same time, I have donated more to the party over 10 years than has, for example, Martin Helme. Recently, for instance – in December – I donated €7,500. I have also taken on young party members as interns on a yearly basis, brought hundreds of party members to Brussels in guest groups, and have always yielded decent results at elections," Madison added.

Madison: I stood by EKRE until the final hours

EKRE chair Martin Helme has described the arising tensions and Silver Kuusik's leadership challegning as a coup attempt.

During the ETV appearance, on politics show "Esimene stuudio," which Madison referred to in his post, Madison said that he did not understand what Helme had meant by this.

He told "Esimene stuudio": "In every organization that is growing and is political, there are different interest groups, different visions for the future, different assessments of what has gone on; a glance back at the elections, where perhaps some small mistakes were made on things that could have been done better. These all add up to people running for positions."

"So I wouldn't call this a coup, though sometimes both sides might have crossed lines that shouldn't be crossed," Madison added.

"I believe and indeed hope that the congress will make its choice and, after that, different candidates will be able to move forward together, because the worldview and value system that brings people to a party should remain the same," he continued.

"I believe that Martin Helme, Silver Kuusik, and I share the same basic values. The differences are mere nuances. So I hope that after the congress, the party will be developed even stronger and will move forward together," the MEP continued.

Madison would not be drawn on how many people in the party might be dissatisfied with the current leadership.

He said: "We will be able to see at the congress, where there will be about 500 delegates from different districts attending. I wouldn't even call these dissatisfied members who are brooding in a corner. They are our party rank-and-file, who are concerned about Estonia and the Estonian people, and how to represent our voters."

Martin Helme on Monday told said Vikerraadio that since the 2023 Riigikogu elections, a debate within the party has been ongoing about whether EKRE should change its tactics in order to re-enter office.

Madison for his part that no one in the party wants EKRE to become acceptable to liberals.

"I have also read in the media that there have been suggestions that the party should become a mainstream one. The question is, of course, what is a mainstream party?"

"EKRE has been called a niche party, but as of today EKRE has government experience (April 2019-January 2021 – ed.), we have some former ministers, we can cover all political topics – we are certainly not a niche party. But at the same time, there is concern that maybe some people want to shape the party into some kind of soft, free-floating formation that would appeal to the liberal parties," Madison went on.

"There is no denying that the most pleased by media coverage and the internal conflicts blown out of proportion are liberal parties, who would like to see the most nationalistic and conservative party in Estonia, which represents over 100,000 voters in the Riigikogu, disappear from the political landscape.

Therefore, internal matters must be largely kept within the party, and what leaks out must be resolved and compromises found among ourselves. But the fact is that I believe no one in the party wants the party to become acceptable to the liberal wing," he added

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