People's Union of Estonia
|
People's Union of Estonia
Eestimaa Rahvaliit |
|
|---|---|
 |
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| Leader | Margo Miljand |
| Founded | 29 September 1994 (EME) |
| Dissolved | 24 March 2012 |
| Merged into | Conservative People's Party of Estonia |
| Headquarters | Pärnu mnt. 30-6 Tallinn 10141 |
| Ideology |
Agrarianism, Centrism |
| European affiliation | None |
| International affiliation | None |
| European Parliament group | None |
| Colours | Blue, Gold |
| Parliament: |
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| Website | |
| http://www.erl.ee | |
The People's Union of Estonia (Estonian: Eestimaa Rahvaliit) was a political party in Estonia, its last leader being Margo Miljand.
In the 2003 parliamentary election, the party collected 64,463 votes, which made 13.0% share of all votes and 13 mandates out of 101. In 2007's election, this dropped to 39,211 votes (7.1% of the total, a drop of 5.9%), and six seats in the Riigikogu, a loss of 7. It has dropped from fourth to sixth place among parties, having been bested by the Social Democratic Party and (narrowly) by the Greens.
The party was founded on 29 September 1994 in Tallinn under the name of Estonian Country People's Party (Eesti Maarahva Erakond, EME). On 18 October 1999 the party was renamed to People's Union of Estonia. On 10 June 2000 the People's Union merged with the Estonian Country Union (Eesti Maaliit, EML) and with the Estonian Party of Pensioners and Families (Eesti Pensionäride ja Perede Erakond, EPPE), becoming the largest political party in Estonia. Another merger with the New Estonia Party (Erakond Uus Eesti) in 2003 resulted in further growth of membership. In 2010, there were more than 9,000 official members in the People's Union of Estonia.
The People's Union of Estonia was an agrarian party with populist, social democratic influences. Consequently, the party experienced difficulties in gaining wider support in cities and big towns. The last couple of years brought along some changes. The representation of the People's Union in towns (including the capital Tallinn) grew and they started to work on involving Russian-speaking minority in political activities. Russian Association of the People's Union was founded in 2005. The People's Union had a youth organisation called the Youth of the People's Union (Rahvaliidu Noored), which had approximately 3000 members.
On the European level the People's Union was a member of the Alliance for Europe of the Nations, but did not have any representatives in the European Parliament. The official organ of the Union was The Caring Estonia (Hooliv Eesti).
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