Kris Kärner joins Centre Party faction in Tartu council

Kris Kärner will join the Centre Party group in Tartu City Council, allowing the party to form a five-member faction, ERR reported.

Anneli Ott, chair of the Centre Party’s Tartu branch and a council member, said the cooperation was based on defending Tartu residents’ interests and advancing shared positions in the council.

“Kris Kärner received a personal mandate in the local elections and, with it, strong support from Tartu residents,” Ott said. “The clear mandate given by voters is a responsibility that cannot and must not be ignored. It is important to us that the voices of these people, many of them young Tartu residents, are represented as strongly as possible in the council.”

Kärner said he shared enough common ground with the Centre Party on issues important to the future of both Tartu and Estonia, including opportunities for young people to pursue their goals, education, entrepreneurship, people’s ability to cope financially, and practical city governance.

“I am not joining the faction to become quieter, but to make my voters’ voice stronger,” Kärner said. “A total of 1,597 people gave me a mandate to stand up for them. I take that very seriously. Alone, a council member can raise questions and draw attention to problems, but the purpose of politics must also be to change decisions. A faction offers significantly more opportunities to do that.”

The Centre Party said Kärner had already shown that his vote could influence specific decisions in the council. With his support and cooperation from the opposition, the council decided to continue reimbursing emergency department visit fees for Tartu residents up to the age of 19, despite the city government’s plans to cut the benefit.

The Centre Party is currently represented on Tartu City Council by Anneli Ott, Irina Panova, Nikolai Põdramägi and Artjom Suvorov. Kärner’s arrival will enable the formation of a five-member Centre Party faction.

Kärner previously expelled from Isamaa faction

Kärner, a streamer, belonged to the Isamaa party until September last year, when he left after making calls for political violence. He had joined the party in February of the same year and drew attention on social media by inciting hatred, including writing that Social Democrats should be lined up against a wall and shot with a pump-action shotgun.

Kärner nevertheless ran in the local elections in October on the Isamaa ticket and received the fourth-highest result in Tartu, with 1,597 votes, securing a seat on the council.

Last November, Kärner called Isamaa politician Tõnis Lukas a spineless fool, a bastard and an old codger. In December, he joined the Isamaa faction in the council, while Lukas was excluded after refusing to belong to the same alliance as Kärner.

In February this year, the Isamaa faction decided to expel Kärner from its ranks. Kaspar Kokk, the faction’s chair and head of the Isamaa Tartu branch, said Kärner’s statements showed a failure to understand what was appropriate for a politician and public figure.

“Unfortunately, his behaviour left us no choice but to decide to expel him from the faction. I hope he will sooner or later understand that words have consequences, but our cooperation ends with this decision,” Kokk said.