Madison said the failure to reinstall this alignment in 2022 was the result of Helme's insistence on being the administration's prime minister, and also demanding the dismissal of the heads of no less than five security agencies.

In an interview given to ERR published on Friday, Helme referred to Madison as an unprincipled chancer, and said that as early as November last year, EKRE had considered removing Madison from the party's European Parliament election list.

The party feared they would struggle to explain this decision to their members and voters, however, so Madison remained as a candidate and was returned to the European Parliament. Helme said he now believes they should have gone through with demoting Madison.

In his social media post, Madison wrote: "I must apologize to all the former and remaining EKRE voters that Helme chose to split the party rather than grasp the deep problems that led to this split."

"Moreover, this kind of blessing of mine is a good illustration of hypocrisy, since last November (and also both before and after November), I told him frankly what needed to be done, how it should be done and what should not be done. But paranoia led him to believe that perhaps what I was saying was a ruse from some deep state agent," he continued.

"However if there is anyone who is an adventurer, it is the person who, out of a lust for power, allowed the Reform Party to remain in power," Madison's post continued.

He stated that in March-April 2022, not long after the start of Russia's aggression against Ukraine, the real possibility existed of reforming a government featuring EKRE, Isamaa and the Center Party, thus pushing the Reform Party into opposition.

"But this eventually fell through, as Helme demanded the prime minister's post and the dismissal of five power ministry leaders," the MEP's post went on.

"The outcome, then, was that the Reform Party stayed in power, and won the 2023 elections, partly because many people supported the party in power over the security issues."

"In addition, I know many people who did not venture to vote for EKRE because of the faux pas over Ukraine. So much for chancers," he concluded.

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