Center Party MPs speak against Savisaar

  • 2004-04-08
  • By Aleksei Gunter
TALLINN - Internal clashes in the Center Party intensified last week as seven prominent pro-EU party members withdrew themselves from the party's European Parliament electoral list.

The members of the Center Party faction in the Parliament - former Minister of Education Peeter Kreitzberg, former Defense Minister Sven Mikser, former Minister of Economic Affairs Liina Tonisson, former Tallinn Mayor Robert Lepikson, former Agriculture Minister Jaanus Marrandi, film director Mark Soosaar and former Finance Minister Harri Ounapuu - defended their move as a protest against the lack of dialogue and authoritarian leanings inside the party.
In a statement released shortly after the internal vote on the European Parliament candidates, but before the list was confirmed at a party conference, the seven MPs blamed Center Party Chairman Edgar Savisaar for suppression of alternative opinions and a non-democratic management style.
Although the seven MPs said they did not intend to leave the party, they admitted it needed to be more democratic and European-minded.
Possibilities of a potential split in the Center Party have been discussed since last August when the party congress voted against European Union accession. It was then that tension between the pro-EU and anti-EU members first surfaced and spilled into the public.
Center Party Chairman and Tallinn Mayor Edgar Savisaar said he was disappointed by the MPs' statement.
"The party had trusted them. Many party members supported them in the internal elections. It is unbelievable that Kreitzberg, Mikser and Tonisson just do not care about such a trust," Savisaar was quoted as saying by the Center Party press service.
In Savisaar's opinion, both the statement and other recent actions of the party's pro-EU wing leaders were intolerable, as every party member who had placed himself up for vote at the internal elections should have been prepared to work with the common goals.
Savisaar also said he did not agree with the statements that the Center Party's election platform is Euroskeptical.
"After the Sept. 14 referendum, all Estonian parties had to find the best opportunities and solutions to stand for Estonian interests. Kreitzberg, Tonisson and others had an opportunity to create such a platform, an opportunity they did not use," said Savisaar.
After Kreitzberg and others withdrew themselves from the party's European Parliament election list, the roster was reshuffled in accordance with the number of votes every candidate received at the internal elections.
As a result, the top six positions in the new list were taken up by Vilja Savisaar, Enn Eesmaa, Siiri Oviir, Mart Viisitamm, Ain Seppik and Toomas Alatalu. In the initial list, Kreitzberg was first and Mikser was fifth.
The Social Democratic Party, whose number one candidate for the European Parliament is former Foreign Affairs Minister Toomas Hendrik Ilves, offered the self-ostracized Center Party MPs seats in exchange for help in helping the Social Democrats put their election platform together.
"We do not want to seduce them into leaving their party, but we find that such a cooperation would make the program of the Social Democrats stronger and would also provide them [the Centrists] with an outlet," Ilves told the Baltic News Service.
There are six seats reserved for Estonia in the European Parlia-ment. The elections are scheduled for June 13.
The latest rating report on political parties released this week by Emor pollster puts the Center Party on top of the list with the support of 19 percent of the population, or 3 percent less than in the beginning of the year.
The rating of Res Publica, the main partner in the coalition, has fallen from 19 percent in January to a record low of 14 percent. Meanwhile, the People's Party has gained support despite the grain theft scandal and now enjoys the support of 10 percent of the population, the same amount garnered by the Reform Party.
At the party conference held in Tallinn on April 3, the Centrists approved their program of future actions in the European Parliament and the campaign slogan - "Freedom is our relic."