Helme accuses Isamaa of abandoning Estonia’s conservative camp

EKRE chairman Martin Helme criticised Isamaa for supporting what he called a liberal camp candidate in Estonia’s presidential election instead of a nationalist candidate, ERR reported.

Helme said Isamaa had an opportunity to show that it was a conservative party and help Mart Helme become president. He called the party’s decision a serious warning about its likely choices after the next parliamentary elections.

“People in Estonia sometimes talk about a conservative camp as a counterweight to the liberal camp, made up of the Reform Party, the Social Democrats, Eesti 200 and Parempoolsed. In light of the current presidential election, however, it must be said that it is very lonely in this conservative camp,” Helme wrote in a social media post.

According to Helme, Isamaa had no candidate of its own, so it would have been logical for the party to support the candidate of the conservative camp, assuming it still considered itself part of that camp.

Instead, he said, Isamaa decided to support a liberal candidate after first considering whether to back another liberal candidate.

Helme compared the decision with Isamaa’s choice in 2022, when it formed a governing coalition with the Social Democrats and the Reform Party instead of restoring a conservative coalition.

He said EKRE had acted clearly and consistently during this year’s presidential election by naming its candidate early. Helme said the party would not support anyone else in the parliamentary voting rounds and would nominate Mart Helme in the electoral college if the election reached that stage.

On Tuesday, Isamaa chairman Urmas Reinsalu announced that his party would support Chancellor of Justice Ülle Madise for president. A few hours earlier, the Centre Party said it would support Tiit Land, rector of TalTech.

Parliament will meet to elect the president on September 2. A candidate must be nominated by at least one-fifth of the parliament, or at least 21 members.