Party of former minister Kristina Ojuland seeking merger with EKRE
Daily Postimees wrote on Tuesday that the leadership of coalition partner EKRE will discuss a potential merger with the People's Unity Party of former minister of foreign affairs, Kristiina Ojuland.
Chairman of the Conservative People's Party of Estonia (EKRE), Mart Helme, told the paper that they will discuss the "intriguing" proposal and how to go ahead in the matter.
"We'll discuss whether or not to start negotiations, in which form, and with whom," Helme said. "It's somewhat misleading to call the People's Unity Party Kristiina Ojuland's party, after all, the leadership and chairman have changed," he added.
Kristina Ojuland, who followed on Toomas Hendrik Ilves as minister of foreign affairs in 2002, left the Reform Party in 2013 and started her own political group, which in 2014 turned into the People's Unity Party (Rahva Ühtsuse Erakond).
Events that led to the establishment of the new party included Ojuland's increasingly outspoken right-wing stance, especially on social matters. In the controversy surrounding her choice of name for her party, Ojuland called members of Tallinn's NO99 theatre "genetic communists and parasites" after they refused to let her use Ühtne Eesti (United Estonia), the name they had used for a popular theatre performance.
EKRE's members will meet for a party congress in early June.
Editor: Dario Cavegn