Conservative People's Party of Estonia

Conservative People's Party of Estonia Eesti Konservatiivne Rahvaerakond
Chairman	Martin Helme
Deputy chairmen	Mart Helme Henn Põlluaas Jaak Madison
Founded	24 March 2012; 12 years ago (2012-03-24)
Merger of	People's Union of Estonia Estonian Patriotic Movement
Headquarters	Toompuiestee 27, Tallinn
Newspaper	Konservatiivide Vaba Sõna
Youth wing	Blue Awakening
Membership (2021)	10,026[1]
Ideology	Ultranationalism[2] Estonian nationalism[3] National conservatism[4] Social conservatism[5][6] Right-wing populism[7]
Political position	Far-right[8]
European affiliation	Identity and Democracy Party
European Parliament group	Identity and Democracy
Colours	Blue
Riigikogu	16 / 101
Municipalities	244 / 1,717
European Parliament	1 / 7
Party flag
Website
ekre.ee
Politics of Estonia Political parties Elections

The Conservative People's Party of Estonia (Estonian: Eesti Konservatiivne Rahvaerakond, 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.^[9]

Since its inception, EKRE has been described as a right-wing,^[10] radical right,^[11][12] or a far-right party.^[13] The party's leadership rejects the left–right political spectrum.^[14] Widely described as a nationalist,^{[15][16][17][18]} ultranationalist,^{[19][20][21][22]} and national-conservative party,^[4][23] it opposes immigration, including Russian immigration, into Estonia.^[24][25] 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,^[26] and wishes to implement Swiss-style direct democracy, e.g. popular initiatives.^[27][28] Due to its right-wing populist and anti-Russian rhetoric,^[29][30][31] it has been described by critics as xenophobic and racist.^[32][33] On social issues, it is traditionalist,^[34] while its foreign views are orientated towards Euroscepticism.^[35]