EKRE - Conservative People's Party of Estonia

The Conservative People's Party of Estonia (, EKRE) is a nationalist and right-wing populist political party in Estonia, currently led by Martin Helme. It was founded in March 2012, with the merger of People's Union of Estonia and Estonian Patriotic Movement. Its first leader, Margo Miljand, served as the chairman until 2013 when he was succeeded by Mart Helme. Its popularity remained low until late 2014, when the party began to draw supporters from the right; further, in the 2015 Estonian parliamentary election, it passed the electoral threshold and won seats in parliament for the first time. Since then its support has grown, turning it into one of the largest parties in Estonia. In the 2019 Estonian parliamentary election, EKRE placed third, winning 19 seats in total. Mart was succeeded as party chairman by his son, Martin Helme, in July 2020. Since its inception, EKRE has been described as a right-wing, radical right, or a far-right party. The party's leadership rejects the left–right political spectrum. Widely described as a nationalist, ultranationalist, and national-conservative party, it opposes immigration, including Russian immigration, into Estonia. The party supports the transition of the public school education, which until now has been provided in Russian to the Russian-speaking Soviet immigrant minority in Estonia, into Estonian-language education, and wishes to implement Swiss-style direct democracy, e.g. popular initiatives. Due to its right-wing populist and anti-Russian rhetoric, it has been described by critics as xenophobic and racist. On social issues, it is traditionalist, while its foreign views are orientated towards Euroscepticism. History The party is a descendant of several earlier Estonian nationalist movements and political groups. The Estonian Patriotic Movement (ERL) was a political pressure group founded in 2006. From 2008, the movement was led by Martin Helme. ERL was set up in the middle of 2006 to promote the removal of the "Bronze Soldier of Tallinn", a Stalinist war monument, from the centre of capital city Tallinn.