Estonian Centre Party
에스토니아 중앙당
An Estonian party founded on 12 October 1991 on the basis of the Popular Front of Estonia. Edgar Savisaar led it almost continuously from 1991 to 2016; it came first in the 1999 and 2003 elections and took part in several coalition governments. From 2016 to January 2021 its leader Jüri Ratas was prime minister, and since the 2000s it has increasingly become the party of the Russian-speaking minority.
In depth
According to the Estonian source, the Centre Party grew out of the Popular Front and was founded on 12 October 1991, with Edgar Savisaar as its first chairman. Until 17 April 1993 it was called the Estonian People’s Centre Party. It ran in the 1992 election on the list of the Popular Front electoral alliance, which received 12.5%, and in the 1995 election won 14.2% and 16 seats and joined Tiit Vähi’s second government.
In 1995 Savisaar, then party chairman and interior minister, was forced to resign over the “tape scandal”, in which he was accused of recording private conversations with other politicians, and Andra Veidemann became chairman, but the party core remained loyal to Savisaar. In 1996 Veidemann’s camp left to form the Development Party and Savisaar returned as leader. The Estonian source judges that from the 1990s until at least 2012 the main conflict in the Estonian party system was between the Centre Party and Pro Patria Union, the chief successors of the Popular Front and the Estonian Committee respectively.
The Centre Party came first in the 1999 election with 23.4% and 28 seats and in 2003 with 25.4% and 28 seats, but because right-wing parties were unwilling to work with Savisaar it seldom entered government. It took part in Siim Kallas’s government in 2002–2003 and in Andrus Ansip’s first government in 2005–2007. In 2004 some members, unhappy with anti-EU attitudes and Savisaar’s authoritarian leadership, left for the Social Democratic Party. The same year the party signed a cooperation agreement with Russia’s United Russia, which it declared void in March 2022 over Russia’s attack on Ukraine.
In 2016 Jüri Ratas became chairman, and the Centre Party formed a coalition government with the Social Democrats and IRL. After the 2019 election it governed with the Conservative People’s Party of Estonia and Isamaa, but its support fell. After winning only 16 seats in 2023 it elected Mihhail Kõlvart chairman in September, and in 2024 Ratas and several other MPs left the party. The Estonian source notes that the party has often been associated with corruption, has been convicted three times, and since the 2000s has increasingly become the party of the Russian-speaking minority.