Estonia: More Centre Party members likely to leave: ex-chairman

Estonia’s former prime minister and former chairman of the Estonian Centre Party (Keskerakond), Jüri Ratas, expects more people to leave the opposition party, ERR reports. He said that the party’s new chairman, Tallinn’s Russian-speaking mayor Mihhail Kõlvart, has failed to ensure party unity, noting that most of those who have quit are Estonian-speakers. Earlier, two former Centre Party ministers, Jaak Aab and Tanel Kiik, announced that they were considering leaving the party and joining the Social Democratic Party (SDE), which is part of the current coalition government. Meanwhile, Centre Party’s deputy chair, MEP Yana Toom, suggested that the exodus of party members was largely over, insisting that the group of dissenters was small. Ratas and Kiik have criticised Toom for helping pro-Russia activists who were expelled from Estonia.