TALLINN - Estonia's Parliament underwent a major change this week, as seven deputies from the oppositionist Center Party broke ranks in protest against the party's policy and leadership, while more are expected to join the rebellion.
On May 10 the Parliament's board accepted the petitions from four MPs - Jaanus Marrandi, Harri Ounapuu, Peeter Kreitzberg and Sven Mikser - to withdraw from the Center Party, following the decision of two others - Robert Lepikson and Mark Soosaar - to do the same. The following day the board accepted a withdrawal petition from Olev Laanjarv, while it was expected that another centrist, Liina Tonisson, would also leave the party during the week.
The Center Party, one of the two most popular in Estonia, will have 20 seats in the 101-strong legislature after the mass exodus.
"I don't think this comes as a very big surprise to anyone," Sven Mikser was quoted by the Baltic News Service as saying. "When all is said and done, this situation evolved over a longer period of time, and we also made it known some time ago that this was our intention."
Mikser predicted that the Center Party would lose even more members in the following weeks.
The group of MPs has already declared its intention to create a new party, which will most likely be named the Democratic Center Party, even though it will not have official party status according to parliamentary rules.
Kreitzberg, one of the leaders of the revolt, told the Eesti Paevaleht daily that the new political faction would most likely consist of eight MPs. He said that although the group would have much in common with the Social Democrats and the Pro Patria Union, it would continue to follow the Center Party program.
"Our aim in forming the association is to not remain independent deputies each on his own but act together in the future to make up a political force in Parliament," Mikser said, adding that much of the Center Party platform was written by lawmakers who are now leaving the party.
The Center Party reacted by saying it expected the deputies to leave Parliament entirely.
"The Center Party certainly expects that the people who, ahead of the 2003 parliamentary elections, held the high positions of deputy chairmen in the party and who themselves prepared both the elections and the so-called candidate's agreement, whereby the people running on the party's slate committed themselves to leaving the Parliament if they left the faction," Deputy Chairman Enn Eesmaa told BNS.
Both Kreitzberg and Mikser were deputy chairmen until the Center Party's congress last summer, where the party leadership largely decided not to support EU accession.
Eesmaa noted that leaving Parliament after leaving the faction is part of a tacit agreement that has been in force in the Center Party since 1995 and that follows the practice of several European parties.
None of the politicians who have left the Center Party have won a parliamentary seat on a personal mandate, Eesmaa added.
Prior to the exodus, the centrists tried to work out a compromise with party leadership, which they accused of being uncompromising, and even authoritarian. Several called for the resignation of Center Party Chairman Edgar Savisaar, who is also mayor of Tallinn.
Few believed, however, that Savisaar would ever agree to such a move, and the May 6 conference between the Tallinn mayor and the disgruntled members failed to resolve the conflict.
However, Savisaar reportedly agreed to resign only if the dissatisfied MPs resign first - a move that they in turn rejected.
Among other demands put on the table by Mikser and Kreitzberg were a reorganization of the party's weekly newspaper, Kesknadal, and a public discussion of the infamous agreement signed between Savisaar and the pro-Kremlin United Russia party during the former's recent trip to Moscow.
Neither of these were accepted by Savisaar.
"At last Thursday's reconciliation meeting, Edgar Savisaar said in response to demands of his resignation that he called on former top leaders of the party who now sit in Parliament to share responsibility for possible mistakes made in running the party," Eesmaa said. "He called on them not to hang on to their highly paid parliamentary positions and give people not responsible for the past a chance to further the cause of the party."
Speaking during the open microphone session in Parliament on May 11, Mikser said that those who left the party had thought of leaving Parliament as well, though in the end they decided against it. It's not the breakaway deputies who have changed their political course, he explained, but the faction that has done so in many things against its pre-election promises.
In the meantime, two ruling coalition parties, Res Publica and Reform, have said they would seek cooperation with the group of runaway deputies.
"We certainly aim at cooperation because their views are common with ours, and the growth of the democratic camp in Parliament is in every way beneficial," Siim-Valmar Kiisler, head of the Res Publica faction in Parliament, told the Postimees daily. "Res Publica earlier ruled out cooperation with the Center Party exactly because of its authoritarian leadership style - the same reason why the democratic wing has now left the Center Party."
Rain Rosimannus of the Reform Party faction voiced the opinion that the emergence of the new group of deputies was going to significantly change the disposition of forces in Parliament.
"As they represent the Center Party's pro-European and liberal wing, we shall be glad to work together with them," he said. "We doubtlessly would be happy also if the centrist ministers who coped well in the Reform Party-led government joined the Reform Party."
According to the Estonian legislation, the rebel centrists cannot form a new faction but have the right to form a so-called MP group. The MPs will have the same rights but will be prohibited from taking the floor during the first and the third reading of bills.