Several EKRE politicians leave the party in protest

SAPTK protest meeting in the Freedom Square on Saturday. Photo: Sander Ilvest

Several members of the opposition Conservative People’s Party (EKRE) said on Sunday that they will quit the party following an anti-vaccination rally held in Tallinn’s Freedom Square on Saturday and the party leaders' statements there.

Sworn lawyer Urmas Simon, Tallinn city council member Kairet Remmak-Grassman and Kadrina council member Siim Umerov were among the better-known members to announce plans to leave.

Simon said that the Saturday rally, where EKRE leader Martin Helme demanded the removal from office of a democratically elected government, became the last straw for him. “Excuse me, was it a call for revolution or violently overthrowing the government? One should be able to realize that the government will not resign nor anything change as a result of public chanting, unless it was a call to march on Toompea Hill and stage a coup. I see elements of offenses against the state here,” Simon said.

The sworn lawyer was also critical of EKRE’s anti-vaccination sentiment. He recalled that none of the party’s leaders were talking about freedoms when EKRE was in the previous government that ordered tough coronavirus measures.

Kairet Remmak-Grassman said that a party should not prioritize conflict and sowing distrust.

“Yesterday’s protest meeting in the Freedom Square, in a situation where regular treatment is suspended, where doctors, nurses and caregivers are making superhuman efforts and fighting for human lives, no longer makes it possible for me to remain a silent onlooker. I’m embarrassed and saddened to see people’s health and income, fears and disappointment hitched to a party’s campaign wagon,” she said.

Siim Umerov, as the candidate who took the most votes in Kadrina, Lääne-Viru County during the recent local election, said that his worldview has been moving in the opposite direction from the party’s for some time.

“Recent events and statements by party leaders are not compatible with a free and democratic society. Movements and principles that jeopardize the lives of fellow citizens must not be defended under the aegis of freedoms,” Umerov said in terms of why he has decided to quit EKRE.

The party’s ranks had shrunk from 10,042 members on Sunday morning to 10,029 by the time the paper went to print.

The Foundation for the Protection of the Family and Tradition (SAPTK) held a protest meeting against coronavirus measures on Saturday that drew over 5,000 people. Helme said in his speech that the media, government and hospitals are lying to people on a daily basis and urged people to chant: “Down with Kaja Kallas' government!”