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82-628: The Conservative People's Party of Estonia ( Estonian : Eesti Konservatiivne Rahvaerakond , EKRE ) is a nationalist and right-wing populist political party in Estonia 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

164-566: A Finnic language rather than a variety of Estonian. Modern standard Estonian evolved in the 18th and 19th centuries based on the dialects of northern Estonia. During the Medieval and Early Modern periods, Estonian accepted many loanwords from Germanic languages , mainly from Middle Low German (Middle Saxon) and, after the 16th-century Protestant Reformation , from the Standard German language. Estonia's oldest written records of

246-455: 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

328-462: A ban on all genetically modified foods and their import. EKRE has been described as being skeptical of climate change . The Conservative People's Party of Estonia often calls to protect Estonia's independence and sovereignty from supranational unions . They say that the European Union is moving towards a federal state and Estonia should veto any legislation that centralises more power to

410-588: A blog post by EKRE's MP Jaak Madison , written in January 2012. In the blog post, Madison, commented on the economic policies in Nazi Germany in the 1930s: "There is no perfect form of government, not even democracy. I consider that (German) fascism was a (negative) ideology that also included several positive nuances that could be needed in order to preserve the nation-state." The former president of Estonia Arnold Rüütel voiced his support for Mart Helme in

492-455: A broad classical education and knew Ancient Greek , Latin and French . Consider roim 'crime' versus English crime or taunima 'to condemn, disapprove' versus Finnish tuomita 'to condemn, to judge' (these Aavikisms appear in Aavik's 1921 dictionary). These words might be better regarded as a peculiar manifestation of morpho-phonemic adaptation of a foreign lexical item. Article 1 of

574-412: A four-year term. The seats were allocated using a modified D'Hondt method . The country is divided into twelve multi-mandate electoral districts . There is a nationwide threshold of 5% for party lists, but if the number of votes cast for a candidate exceeds or equals the simple quota (which shall be obtained by dividing the number of valid votes cast in the electoral district by the number of mandates in

656-484: A national defence policy based on self-reliance of Estonia. The security of the country would be safeguarded by the existence of initial defence, compulsory military service, total defence, international cooperation and the membership of NATO . The platform of the party includes formation of two tank battalions and acquisition of medium-range anti-aircraft systems. Martin Helme has expressed sympathy for American presidential candidate Donald Trump , including his argument

738-551: A possible merging partner already in 2010. The talks then with the Social Democratic Party were concluded and a special congress was convened to approve the merger agreement. However, at the party congress, only 172 delegates out of 412 supported the deal. Following the failed merger attempt, many leading members (MPs) left the party and joined the Social Democrats. In the 2011 parliamentary election ,

820-407: 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 . After 2007,

902-426: Is a predominantly agglutinative language . The loss of word-final sounds is extensive, and this has made its inflectional morphology markedly more fusional , especially with respect to noun and adjective inflection. The transitional form from an agglutinating to a fusional language is a common feature of Estonian typologically over the course of history with the development of a rich morphological system. Word order

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984-734: Is based on central dialects, it has no vowel harmony either. In the standard language, the front vowels occur exclusively on the first or stressed syllable, although vowel harmony is still apparent in older texts. Typologically, Estonian represents a transitional form from an agglutinating language to a fusional language . The canonical word order is SVO (subject–verb–object), although often debated among linguists. In Estonian, nouns and pronouns do not have grammatical gender , but nouns and adjectives decline in fourteen cases: nominative , genitive , partitive , illative , inessive , elative , allative , adessive , ablative , translative , terminative , essive , abessive , and comitative , with

1066-511: Is considerably more flexible than in English, but the basic order is subject–verb–object . The speakers of the two major historical languages spoken in Estonia, North and South Estonian , are thought by some linguists to have arrived in Estonia in at least two different migration waves over two millennia ago, both groups having spoken considerably different vernacular; South Estonian might be

1148-541: Is founded on the continuity of the Republic of Estonia and its Constitution , and it unites people who fight for the nation state, social cohesion and democratic principles . EKRE states that the activities of the party are based on three fundamental values: It has also been labelled "far-right" by Kari Käsper, the Executive Director of Estonian Human Rights Centre, and in foreign media by BBC News and

1230-814: Is pronounced [æ], as in English mat . The vowels Ä, Ö and Ü are clearly separate phonemes and inherent in Estonian, although the letter shapes come from German. The letter õ denotes /ɤ/ , unrounded /o/ , or a close-mid back unrounded vowel . It is almost identical to the Bulgarian ъ /ɤ̞/ and the Vietnamese ơ , and is also used to transcribe the Russian ы . Additionally C , Q , W , X , and Y are used in writing foreign proper names . They do not occur in Estonian words , and are not officially part of

1312-492: Is pronounced) and in the use of 'i' and 'j'. Where it is very impractical or impossible to type š and ž , they are replaced by sh and zh in some written texts, although this is considered incorrect. Otherwise, the h in sh represents a voiceless glottal fricative , as in Pasha ( pas-ha ); this also applies to some foreign names. Modern Estonian orthography is based on the "Newer orthography" created by Eduard Ahrens in

1394-518: Is that blood is thicker than water. Loyalty is not guaranteed by Estonian citizenship or even a soldier's oath given to the Estonian state. Loyalty is based on a feeling of ethnic belonging and a bond with one's ancestors." Prior to the 2019 Estonian parliamentary election , Mart Helme said that there was an "overlap" between the party's "very conservative" attitudes towards immigration and "homosexual propaganda" and those of Russians in Estonia. Mart Helme has criticised Ukrainian immigration to Estonia, on

1476-757: The idamurre or eastern dialect on the northwestern shore of Lake Peipus . One of the pronunciation features of the Saaremaa dialect is the lack of the 'õ' vowel. A five-metre monument erected in 2020, marking the "border" between the vowels 'õ' and 'ö', humorously makes reference to this fact. South Estonian consists of the Tartu, Mulgi, Võro and Seto varieties. These are sometimes considered either variants of South Estonian or separate languages altogether. Also, Seto and Võro distinguish themselves from each other less by language and more by their culture and their respective Christian confession. Estonian employs

1558-536: The Universal Declaration of Human Rights in Estonian and English: 2011 Estonian parliamentary election Andrus Ansip Reform Andrus Ansip Reform A parliamentary election was held in Estonia on 6 March 2011, with e-voting between 24 February and 2 March 2011. The newly elected 101 members of the 12th Riigikogu assembled at Toompea Castle in Tallinn within ten days of

1640-403: The 2016 Estonian presidential election . As of 2018, EKRE was the only political party in Estonia with growing membership numbers. While all other parties were losing members, EKRE was gaining a few hundred members on a yearly basis. In March 2019 Mart Helme said to the press that he wishes that one day his party would be the sole ruling party of Estonia. After gaining 17.8% of the votes in

1722-490: The 2019 parliamentary election , EKRE joined Jüri Ratas' second cabinet with five out of fifteen cabinet positions. In 2021, Jüri Ratas resigned and the new government was formed without EKRE. In 2021, pundits noticed that since 2019 EKRE support grew in the Russian community (notably in Ida-Viru County ) This might be attributed to party's social conservative stance on social policy matters (e. g. opposition to

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1804-712: The Germanic languages have very different origins and the vocabulary is considered quite different from that of the Indo-European family, one can identify many similar words in Estonian and English, for example. This is primarily because Estonian has borrowed nearly one-third of its vocabulary from Germanic languages, mainly from Low Saxon ( Middle Low German ) during the period of German rule , and High German (including standard German ). The percentage of Low Saxon and High German loanwords can be estimated at 22–25 percent, with Low Saxon making up about 15 percent. Prior to

1886-581: The Latin script as the basis for its alphabet . The script adds the letters ä , ö , ü , and õ , plus the later additions š and ž . The letters c , q , w , x and y are limited to proper names of foreign origin, and f , z , š , and ž appear in loanwords and foreign names only. Ö and Ü are pronounced similarly to their equivalents in Swedish and German. Unlike in standard German but like Swedish (when followed by 'r') and Finnish, Ä

1968-536: The Proto-Finnic language , elision has occurred; thus, the actual case marker may be absent, but the stem is changed, cf. maja – majja and the Ostrobothnia dialect of Finnish maja – majahan . The verbal system has no distinct future tense (the present tense serves here) and features special forms to express an action performed by an undetermined subject (the "impersonal"). Although Estonian and

2050-516: The Riigikogu represents the Estonian people, our national interest or traditional values. The government acts on right- and left liberal, also socialist ideas that our countrymen are simply statistical units or taxpayers, consumers at best. It is not far right or far left, just ultra-liberalism. The Conservative People's Party gives a solution to the voters who are sick of forced choice between Ansip and Savisaar , East and West, left and right." For

2132-703: The Russian Federation 's covert interference in Estonia's internal affairs. In June 2007, ERL issued a press release demanding the declaration of the Russian Ambassador to Estonia, Nikolai Uspenski, a persona non grata based on his repeated attempts at such interference. The party (EKRE) was formally founded in March 2012 when an agrarian centrist party People's Union of Estonia and the Estonian Patriotic Movement (ERL) merged. The People's Union had started to look for

2214-733: The Uralic language family . Other Finnic languages include Finnish and some minority languages spoken around the Baltic Sea and in northwestern Russia. Estonian is typically subclassified as a Southern Finnic language, and it is the second-most-spoken language among all the Finnic languages. Alongside Finnish, Hungarian , and Maltese , Estonian is one of the four official languages of the European Union that are not Indo-European languages . In terms of linguistic morphology , Estonian

2296-485: The 1870s to the 1890s) tried to use formation ex nihilo ( Urschöpfung ); i.e. they created new words out of nothing. The most well-known reformer of Estonian, Johannes Aavik (1880–1973), used creations ex nihilo (cf. 'free constructions', Tauli 1977), along with other sources of lexical enrichment such as derivations, compositions and loanwords (often from Finnish; cf. Saareste and Raun 1965: 76). In Aavik's dictionary (1921) lists approximately 4000 words. About 40 of

2378-926: The 1930s. There are 9 vowels and 36 diphthongs , 28 of which are native to Estonian. All nine vowels can appear as the first component of a diphthong, but only /ɑ e i o u/ occur as the second component. A vowel characteristic of Estonian is the unrounded back vowel /ɤ/, which may be close-mid back , close back , or close-mid central . Word-initial b, d, g occur only in loanwords and some old loanwords are spelled with p, t, k instead of etymological b, d, g : pank 'bank'. Word-medially and word-finally, b, d, g represent short plosives /p, t, k/ (may be pronounced as partially voiced consonants), p, t, k represent half-long plosives /pː, tː, kː/, and pp, tt, kk represent overlong plosives /pːː, tːː, kːː/; for example: kabi /kɑpi/ 'hoof' — kapi /kɑpːi/ 'wardrobe [ gen sg ] — kappi /kɑpːːi/ 'wardrobe [ ptv sg ]'. Before and after b, p, d, t, g, k, s, h, f, š, z, ž ,

2460-524: The 19th century during the Estophile Enlightenment Period (1750–1840). The birth of native Estonian literature was during the period 1810–1820, when the patriotic and philosophical poems by Kristjan Jaak Peterson were published. Peterson, who was the first student to acknowledge his Estonian origin at the then German-language University of Dorpat , is commonly regarded as a herald of Estonian national literature and considered

2542-490: The 200 words created by Johannes Aavik allegedly ex nihilo are in common use today. Examples are * ese 'object', * kolp 'skull', * liibuma 'to cling', * naasma 'to return, come back', * nõme 'stupid, dull'. Many of the coinages that have been considered (often by Aavik himself) as words concocted ex nihilo could well have been influenced by foreign lexical items; for example, words from Russian , German , French , Finnish , English and Swedish . Aavik had

Conservative People's Party of Estonia - Misplaced Pages Continue

2624-628: The Baltic Pride as "some kind of a parade of perverts ". The safeguarding of a parade of perverts is not the job of the police. Homosexual- and multicultural propaganda has to be taken out of schools. Children need to get the best education, an Estonian-minded upbringing and healthy values from school. We support giving children a patriotic education. We do not allow so-called tolerance propaganda in schools. Education should not be played with! EKRE views Estonia's form of government as heavily biased towards representative democracy , without means for

2706-515: The Baltic countries need to make a financial contribution in exchange for the military alliance with the United States. "He can see no reason why the United States should make the national defense of other countries its duty. And I believe this question is completely justified. It's namely our party that has been saying for a long time that making initial independent defense capability strong is

2788-543: The Christian Science Monitor . According to Fox News Channel , EKRE is a far-right party, "considered by some to have Fascist-Neo-Nazi sympathies similar to many other flourishing nationalist parties in the Baltics and Eastern Europe". The Simon Wiesenthal Center has called EKRE youth organisation's annual torchlight procession an "extreme right march". Martin Helme , the party leader, has said that

2870-603: The Estophile educated class admired the ancient culture of the Estonians and their era of freedom before the conquests by Danes and Germans in the 13th century. When the Republic of Estonia was established in 1918, Estonian became the official language of the newly independent country. Immediately after World War II , in 1945, over 97% of the then population of Estonia self-identified as native ethnic Estonians and spoke

2952-482: The Finnic languages date from the 13th century. The "Originates Livoniae" in the Livonian Chronicle of Henry contains Estonian place names, words and fragments of sentences. The earliest extant samples of connected (north) Estonian are the so-called Kullamaa prayers dating from 1524 and 1528. In 1525 the first book published in Estonian was printed. The book was a Lutheran manuscript, which never reached

3034-466: The People's Union did not pass the 5% threshold. Mart Helme and several of his close allies ran at the election as independent candidates, none of whom passed the threshold necessary for an independent to enter the parliament. After the election, the leader of the People's Union, Margo Miljand, met with Helme. To save the party, Helme advised him to change the party name and alter the program. With links to

3116-490: 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 . The party

3198-403: The accusations of extremism simply reflect the unfamiliarity and discomfort of the ruling class and media with the new political rhetoric of EKRE: "The mainstream has become so orthodox, so narrow, that whatever is not immaculately, diligently, fervently more-catholic-than-pope mainstream is immediately labelled extremism." The programme of EKRE states that the citizens must actively guard against

3280-410: The alphabet. Including all the foreign letters, the alphabet consists of the following 32 letters: Although the Estonian orthography is generally guided by phonemic principles, with each grapheme corresponding to one phoneme , there are some historical and morphological deviations from this: for example preservation of the morpheme in declension of the word (writing b, g, d in places where p, k, t

3362-500: The amount of bureaucracy in the EU. EKRE strongly opposes a proposed border treaty between Estonia and Russia, which, according to the party, would cede 5.2% of Estonia's territory to the latter permanently and without compromise or compensation to Estonia. The party has called the possible signing of the treaty "treason" and the Estonian politicians who would sign it "traitors to the state". However, EKRE more recently has expressed support for

Conservative People's Party of Estonia - Misplaced Pages Continue

3444-499: The basis that both Estonian and Russian residents would "lose their jobs" to lower-wage Ukrainian migrants. The party strictly opposed the civil partnership law on registered partnership for same-sex couples that was adopted by Riigikogu in October 2014. Arguing the law grants adoption rights to homosexual couples, the party believes it essentially establishes same-sex marriage. Instead, the party proposes laws that would help to raise

3526-402: The birth rate and strengthen the societal attitudes towards having children, including the need to strengthen the traditional family model. EKRE also says that pushing through the law while opinion polls showed that the majority of Estonian people opposed it was undemocratic. The party platform proposes a referendum on the civil partnership law. The party's chairman Mart Helme has characterised

3608-413: The case and number of the adjective always agreeing with that of the noun (except in the terminative, essive, abessive and comitative, where there is agreement only for the number, the adjective being in the genitive form). Thus the illative for kollane maja ("a yellow house") is kollasesse majja ("into a yellow house"), but the terminative is kollase majani ("as far as a yellow house"). With respect to

3690-584: The district) the candidate is elected. Pre-election polls put the Reform Party , led by Prime Minister Andrus Ansip , ahead of its main rival, the opposition Centre Party . The former is right of centre , the latter is considered populist , slightly to the left on economic matters. Both parties are members of the European Liberal Democrat and Reform Party . Reform was slightly more socially liberal in comparison to Centre, while SDE

3772-454: The election. The incumbent government of the Reform Party and IRL continued in office until 2014 when Prime Minister Andrus Ansip resigned, ending his tenure as the longest-serving Prime Minister in contemporary Estonian history. He was replaced by Taavi Rõivas who formed a new coalition government with SDE . The Riigikogu elected after this election was the least fragmented in Estonian history, featuring only four parties. The election

3854-422: The end of the 20th century has brought the proportion of native Estonian-speakers in Estonia now back above 70%. Large parts of the first- and second-generation immigrants in Estonia have now adopted Estonian (over 50% as of the 2022 census). The Estonian dialects are divided into two groups – the northern and southern dialects, historically associated with the cities of Tallinn in the north and Tartu in

3936-606: The ethnic makeup of Estonia", it is "scandalous and undemocratic". Commenting on riots in socially segregated suburbs in Sweden, Martin Helme , then board member and the party leader's son said in a TV talk show in May 2013: "Estonia shouldn't allow things to go as far as in England, France and Sweden. Our immigration policy should have one simple rule: if you're black, go back. As simple as that. We shouldn't allow this problem to emerge in

4018-428: The eventual normalisation of relations with Russia, urging a similar policy towards Russia as that of Finland, and to "not parlay up every minor incident into a drama". Although Mart Helme supports existing sanctions imposed against Russia, he has criticised American and EU sanctions policies towards Russia, warning that tougher sanctions would not "make Russia become a democracy", and believes "diplomatic negotiations" are

4100-461: The external as well as the internal enemy in order to secure the Estonian nation, the survival of its independence and its status as an ethno-state. It also states as its objectives the creation of the environment needed for the survival of the Estonian language and culture. The party calls for implementation of direct democracy , balanced state budget , and strict control over immigration to Estonia. Mart Helme has also expressed wishes for EKRE to gain

4182-478: The falling birth rate, the party has proposed family welfare programs such as paying back a quarter of a married couple's mortgage loan with every child's birth and lowering a parent's income tax by 5% rate for every child being raised in the family. EKRE has actively stood against immigration from the Middle East and Africa , especially regarding the quota system proposed by EU Commission in 2015 to resettle

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4264-650: The first place." According to the political scientist Tõnis Saarts, the will to show the Russian minority "their proper place" by making the language and citizenship laws more strict seems to be the "ancient urge of this party". In response to the arrest of Estonian Defence Forces Major Deniss Metsavas, who has ethnic Russian background, for giving classified information to the GRU , Blue Awakening has proposed ethnic profiling when giving non-ethnic Estonian officers access to government secrets. EKRE representative Ruuben Kaalep reasoned: "The only logical explanation for his actions

4346-566: The first three months, EKRE's support according to the polls was zero, then it began to gradually rise. Representatives of EKRE have taken part in the yearly gatherings of the veterans of the Estonian Legion at the Sinimäed Hills . In 2013, the attendance of Mart Helme was praised in Estonian media while the abstention of other parties' leaders was frown upon and seen as a result of Russian anti-fascist propaganda . During

4428-535: The founder of modern Estonian poetry. His birthday, March 14, is celebrated in Estonia as Mother Tongue Day. A fragment from Peterson's poem "Kuu" expresses the claim reestablishing the birthright of the Estonian language: In English: In the period from 1525 to 1917, 14,503 titles were published in Estonian; by comparison, between 1918 and 1940, 23,868 titles were published. In modern times A. H. Tammsaare , Jaan Kross , and Andrus Kivirähk are Estonia 's best-known and most translated writers. Estonians lead

4510-438: The hands of EU. On 30 August 2012, EKRE organised a protest at Toompea against the ratification of European Stability Mechanism treaty. While the party does not advocate Estonia's exit from the EU, it believes that the union has to undergo a drastic change. According to EKRE, the EU has to become a military alliance that would defend all European ethnicities based on the concept of ethnopluralism . EKRE wants to strongly limit

4592-462: The immigrants to all EU member states. Citing a large number of Russians already imported during the Soviet occupation, the party has repeatedly ruled out supporting any further mass immigration into Estonia. The party upholds that the Estonian migration policies must advance the aim of "expanding the amount and percentage of Estonians in Estonia" and if the liberal government allows immigration to "alter

4674-403: The language. When Estonia was invaded and reoccupied by the Soviet army in 1944, the status of Estonian effectively changed to one of the two official languages (Russian being the other one). Many immigrants from Russia entered Estonia under Soviet encouragement. In the 1970s, the pressure of bilingualism for Estonians was intensified. Although teaching Estonian to non-Estonians in local schools

4756-426: The local elections in October 2013, the party gained representation in several smaller municipalities, such as the parishes of Tudulinna and Häädemeeste . A member of the party also became mayor of the town of Saue ; however, he was set up independently of EKRE in a local party's list. The first party since the 1990s to politically organise Estonian diaspora , EKRE founded its Finland branch in October 2014. In

4838-657: The main political positions of the ERL were opposition to the building of the Russian-German Nord Stream 1 pipeline through the Baltic Sea , criticism of the loss of Estonian sovereignty due to membership in the European Union , support for a NATO military base being installed in Estonia, and active opposition to the Estonian Centre Party 's pro-Russia policies and other perceived improper acts. The movement repeatedly expressed displeasure for

4920-516: The most important thing, allies being the next component," said Helme. One of the party's members, Georg Kirsberg, running for election in 2017, supported "a correct teaching of the history of the Third Reich." However, party leader Martin Helme stated that was not the policy of the party, and only "the thought of one person." Estonian language Estonian belongs to the Finnic branch of

5002-577: The nationalist Estonian Patriotic Movement, Helme advised a deal between the two. The movement promised it would help redo the party programme and elect new leaders. In March 2012, the Estonian Patriotic Movement merged into the People's Union and the latter changed its name to the Conservative People's Party of Estonia. At the assembly in Põltsamaa , where the party was founded, EKRE made its first political statement: "No political party in

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5084-502: The only way to resolve Estonia's disputes with Russia. He has also rejected suggestions that Russian President Vladimir Putin is an enemy of Estonia, describing Putin as a "pragmatist" who is "pretty neutral" towards Estonia. These mildly pro-Russian positions were abruptly reversed after the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine : after the invasion started, the EKRE proposed a ban on the ownership of weapons by Russians in Estonia and supported

5166-525: The parliamentary elections. The party program states that the development of the market must serve the national interest. The party calls for creation of a national public bank . It has also supported cooperative banking in Tartu , including in its program the establishment of an alternative interest-free currency. EKRE has voiced criticism over the execution of the Rail Baltica project. According to

5248-413: The parliamentary majority and become the sole governing party (in contrast with Estonia's usual coalition governments ). The EKRE strongly opposes the widespread closure of schools in the countryside. Its program requires the teachers to speak high-level Estonian and be loyal to the Estonian state. To raise the quality of education, EKRE desires to raise the wages of teachers. According to the program of

5330-540: The party began to draw supporters from the right; 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

5412-422: The party, Rail Baltica could potentially bring great benefit to the economy of Estonia, but the current project has a questionable impact on the environment and local communities, as well as a doubtful economic viability. In 2016, both Mart Helme and Henn Põlluaas proposed that the current project should be replaced with a vactrain or Hyperloop connecting Estonia to Central Europe. The party has supported limiting

5494-502: The party, the importance of health care is linked to the preservation of the Estonian nation. The party stands for free dental treatment, wants to limit the availability of tobacco, alcohol and narcotics, and opposes abortion. According to EKRE, demography is one of the most crucial aspects in the survival of the Estonian state. According to Mart Helme, Estonia is in a "demographic crisis", characterised by low birth rate and emigration of more than 100,000 Estonians in recent years. To counter

5576-506: The party. Those who departed EKRE accused the EKRE leadership of pro-Russian stances and called for a less aggressive communication style towards political opponents. Several of the politicians who left EKRE subsequently formed the ' Estonian Nationalists and Conservatives ' party. EKRE describes itself as "a principled and bravely patriotic Estonian party with an unshakable mission to protect Estonian national values and interests". The Estonian Conservative People's Party program states that it

5658-582: The people to have an influence on politics other than elections. To change that, the party wants to return to more traditional ways of direct democracy , such as provided by the earlier Estonian constitutions of 1920 and 1934. The party program includes support of the right of citizens to create initiatives if at least 25,000 registered voters sign a petition to put a bill on referendum. EKRE supports public presidential elections, recall elections and public elections of judges, prosecutors and local police prefects. The party wants to abolish D'Hondt method from

5740-607: The proposal of stopping gas importations from Russia to Estonia. However, Martin Helme later expressed criticism of Estonian aid to Ukraine, citing the need to prioritize infrastructure investment, and suggested that Estonia "concentrate on striving for peace". The party opposes the accession of Turkey to the European Union and has called for reconsidering Turkey's membership in NATO. After the 2016 Turkish coup d'état attempt , EKRE expressed regret over its defeat and called Turkey "no more democratic country than Russia". The EKRE proposes

5822-774: The reader and was destroyed immediately after publication. The first extant Estonian book is a bilingual German-Estonian translation of the Lutheran catechism by S.   Wanradt and J.   Koell dating to 1535, during the Protestant Reformation period. An Estonian grammar book to be used by priests was printed in German in 1637. The New Testament was translated into the variety of South Estonian called Võro in 1686 (northern Estonian, 1715). The two languages were united based on Northern Estonian by Anton thor Helle . Writings in Estonian became more significant in

5904-513: The run-up to the 2015 parliamentary election , EKRE managed to draw supporters from the mainstream right, including defectors mainly from the IRL , but also from the liberal Reform Party and the Free Party 's initiative group. In the election, EKRE won 8.1% of the vote and seven seats in the Riigikogu . Soon after, the winning Reform Party excluded EKRE from the coalition talks, citing as a reason

5986-413: The sale of land to foreigners. According to EKRE, the "untouched natural beauty" of Estonia must be preserved more effectively. Therefore, the party supports alternative and environment-friendly sources of energy. EKRE wants to intensify the fight against littering and says the offenders must be punished at least with a sum necessary to compensate for the harm created to nature. The party's program includes

6068-421: The same-sex marriage). The leadership of dissolved Estonian Independence Party joined EKRE in October 2022. In the March 2023 general election , EKRE received 16,05% of the vote and won 17 seats. The party remained in opposition. A major split in the party took place after the 2024 European Parliament election , with several MPs being expelled from the party, and the party's sole MEP, Jaak Madison leaving

6150-492: The second half of the 19th   century based on Finnish orthography. The "Older orthography" it replaced was created in the 17th   century by Bengt Gottfried Forselius and Johann Hornung based on standard German orthography. Earlier writing in Estonian had, by and large, used an ad hoc orthography based on Latin and Middle Low German orthography. Some influences of the standard German orthography – for example, writing 'W'/'w' instead of 'V'/'v' – persisted well into

6232-419: The sounds [p], [t], [k] are written as p, t, k , with some exceptions due to morphology or etymology. Representation of palatalised consonants is inconsistent, and they are not always indicated. ŋ is an allophone of /n/ before /k/. While peripheral Estonian dialects are characterized by various degrees of vowel harmony , central dialects have almost completely lost the feature. Since the standard language

6314-405: The south, in addition to a distinct kirderanniku dialect, Northeastern coastal Estonian . The northern group consists of the keskmurre or central dialect that is also the basis for the standard language, the läänemurre or western dialect, roughly corresponding to Lääne County and Pärnu County , the saarte murre (islands' dialect) of Saaremaa , Hiiumaa , Muhu and Kihnu , and

6396-514: The wave of new loanwords from English in the 20th and 21st centuries, historically, Swedish and Russian were also sources of borrowings but to a much lesser extent. In borrowings, often 'b' and 'p' are interchangeable, for example 'baggage' becomes 'pagas', 'lob' (to throw) becomes 'loopima'. The initial letter 's' before another consonant is often dropped, for example 'skool' becomes 'kool', 'stool' becomes 'tool'. Estonian language planners such as Ado Grenzstein (a journalist active in Estonia from

6478-464: The world in book ownership, owning on average 218 books per house, and 35% of Estonians owning 350 books or more (as of 2018). Writings in Estonian became significant only in the 19th century with the spread of the ideas of the Age of Enlightenment , during the Estophile Enlightenment Period (1750–1840). Although Baltic Germans at large regarded the future of Estonians as being a fusion with themselves,

6560-477: Was formally compulsory, in practice, the teaching and learning of Estonian by Russian-speakers was often considered unnecessary by the Soviet authorities. In 1991, with the restoration of Estonia's independence , Estonian went back to being the only official language in Estonia. Since 2004, when Estonia joined the European Union, Estonian is also one of the (now 24) official languages of the EU . The return of former Soviet immigrants to their countries of origin at

6642-591: Was marked by the highest number of running independents (32) since 1992. Several independent candidates were members of the Estonian Patriotic Movement and many of them would later become known faces in the Conservative People's Party of Estonia (EKRE) , including future leaders Mart Helme and Martin Helme . The 101 members of the Riigikogu (Parliament of Estonia) were elected using a form of proportional representation for

6724-472: Was the most liberal out of the parties. IRL , meanwhile, was socially conservative, together with Centre. However, most parties had ruled out cooperation with Centre after its leader's controversial comments on regarding the Bronze Night riots and history of scandals . The Estonian National Electoral Committee announced that nine political parties and 32 individual candidates registered to take part in

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