Estonian People's Party (1919–1932)
에스토니아 인민당 (1919–1932)
A centre-right Estonian party founded in March 1919 under Jaan Tõnisson’s leadership ahead of the Constituent Assembly elections. It was the direct successor of the Estonian Progressive People’s Party that Tõnisson had founded in 1905 and of its successor, the Democratic Party, and it came third in the Constituent Assembly with 25 of 120 seats. Its seats later fell to 8–10, but it took part in nine of the twelve cabinets between 1920 and 1932, and in 1931–1932 it merged with other parties into the National Centre Party.
In depth
According to the Estonian source, the Estonian People’s Party was founded in March 1919 under Jaan Tõnisson’s leadership ahead of the Constituent Assembly elections and was in substance the direct successor of the Estonian Progressive People’s Party and its successor, the Estonian Democratic Party. The English source says it was formed by a merger of the Democratic Party and the Estonian Radical Democratic Party, and that some right-wing Democrats who opposed the merger broke away to form the Christian Democratic Party. Its main ideologues included Tõnisson, Jüri Jaakson, Peeter Põld and August Kerem.
In the 1919 Constituent Assembly elections the party won 25 of 120 seats, third after the Social Democratic Workers’ Party and the Labour Party. That autumn Tõnisson formed his first government, a coalition of the People’s Party, the Social Democrats and the Labour Party, under which the War of Independence ended and the Treaty of Tartu was signed. The government fell after the Social Democrats left the coalition on 1 July 1920; after the three-day cabinet of Ado Birk of the same party, Tõnisson led a second cabinet from 30 July to 26 October 1920.
The party then lost popularity quickly, winning 10 seats in 1920, 8 in 1923 and 1926 and 9 in 1929. Tõnisson himself remained popular, however, and the party was a coalition member in nine of the twelve cabinets between 1920 and 1932. According to the English source, in October 1931 it merged with the Christian People’s Party to form the United Nationalist Party, which the Labour Party joined in January 1932 to become the National Centre Party.