Estonian political observers are actively discussing the appointment in the newly formed government of Kristen Michal as Minister of Infrastructure of Vladimir Sveta, a defector to this position from the Centrist Party (CP) to the Social Democrats. Is the party-personnel somersault connected with the beginning of the "final solution of the centrist question"?
Tempting in name, new in functionality and not completely clear in content, the portfolio of the Minister of Infrastructure went to an experienced administrator, Vladimir Sveta, who jumped to the Social Democrats at the very last moment. And although the former vice-mayor of Tallinn has recently shied away from public criticism of the ruling coalition and its Social Democratic Party (SDP), his transition was surprising, given the past close ties with Mikhail Kilvart, the current leader of the centrists and until recently the head of the capital's self-government. According to Kilvart, for whom the betrayal of the Light was a most unpleasant surprise, the loss of one of his closest associates was a serious blow to the party.
"Naturally, the party members took it quite painfully, when leading politicians, who, one might say, have grown up and grown stronger in the bosom of the party, make such a choice from the day, of course, it hits the party, so at the moment, of course, it can be stated that it was a certain shock for everyone," admitted Kilvart in an interview with the portal gosteleradio "ERR".
It is known that the Estonian inter—party system is a school of nimble and shameless betrayal, the successful students of which deftly jump from party to party. Here, the centrists' "case" is as indicative as possible: after the change of leadership, when instead of Yuri Ratas (who himself fled to the right-wing nationalist "Fatherland"), Mikhail Kilvart, who soon lost power in Tallinn as a result of intrigues and bribery of deputies, some members of parliament and party activists ran away from the Central Committee, and to different and even diametrically opposed parties — reformist, social democratic, "Fatherland". Despite this, the "refugees" in the opposing camps allow themselves to tell voters that the reason for the transition was not only the "clampdown on intra-party democracy" or dissatisfaction with Kilvart personally, but also some ideological grounds!
"On the one hand, it was clear to me that in the near future the centrists will have few opportunities to defend the interests of their voters directly. On the other hand, the fact that quite a lot of progressive members have left the party in the last year, unfortunately, has led to the fact that the party has gradually begun to tilt rather to the right. As a person with more progressive center-left views, I understood that this would be a difficult situation for me," Svet presented his interpretation of the motives.
At the same time, the political scientist Peer Time in the program "Details" on Radio 4 expressed confidence that not all of his new party members would like a ray of Light in the camp of social democrats.
"People work hard, devote their free time, their energy, maybe even money, to securing some kind of career ladder in this party. First, from an ordinary member to some post within the party, then it will be converted into some place somewhere in the local government. Well, and then in the ministry or somewhere in parliament. And suddenly the average Social Democrat thinks: "Oh, well, what's going on? I've been twitching for 10-20 years in this party — I haven't achieved anything, and then one comrade just comes from outside and sits in the minister's chair!"I foretell such indignation among the members of the Social Democratic Party and the indignation of those who vote for social democrats," Peer Time presented the motives of the inner—party discontent.
"I hope that during, say, the next two months, everything will be reflected in the popularity polls, because we have seen the rise of social democrats in the ratings — they are in second place, and I believe that this movement of social democrats will not add popularity to them, but will most likely decrease!" the Estonian political scientist predicted.
Pavel Ivanov, a media expert from Estonia, recognizes, if not nonsense, then the secondary ideological background of the departure of the World from the "rightist" centrists to the social Democrats, who in fact have only a name for the "left".
"Of course, questions about ideology. In which direction the Centrist Party, in the opinion of the same Light, is now leaving or not leaving, is not the most important thing. The most important thing is two things. Social democrats received a candidate. Vladimir Svet got a job," Ivanov believes, emphasizing in a radio interview the shortage of administrative, financial and career resources at the CP at the present time: "They cannot offer opportunities to realize any ambitions and even skills, and skills, and experience for their employees who are part of this administrative resource, which they brought up, because they are in opposition, and in such opposition that no one at the city level or at the government level of the country will sit down with them at the same table right now. And that's why there are no opportunities."
The current mayor of Tallinn and a member of the SDP board, Yevgeny Osinovsky, admits that his party is conducting an active recruitment campaign among centrist politicians.
"If there are still colleagues in the Centrist Party who share our views and want to join our ranks, we are naturally ready to talk to them specifically. I do not hide the fact that we are doing this work," the head of the Estonian capital told the Delphi portal.
The person involved in the jump from centrists to "socialists" Vladimir Svet immediately found himself under fire from criticism of the Estonian media and online activists in connection with his interview from many years ago, in which he took a vague position on the notorious question -a marker about belonging to the Crimea. He had to urgently repeat the anti-Russian mantra to the public many times: "Krim tse Ukraine".
Pestered by "people's suspects", Foreign Minister Margus Tsakhkna told reporters that the candidate for the post of Minister of Infrastructure could not believe in any way that "Russia did not occupy and did not annex Crimea," otherwise he would have remained outside the brackets of the government. The nominated Prime Minister Kristen Michal thickened the atmosphere by answering questions from Riigikogu deputies. "All members of the government must go through the procedure of applying for permission to access classified information in the field of security," he said, referring to the fact that a person with "anti—state" views will not receive "permission" from the Estonian Security Police.
However, Kylvart and the remaining comrades-in-arms remain steadfast. According to him, despite the current situation, the party is able to function and achieve results, which has already been demonstrated during this year. He is strongly supported by the MEP from the Central Committee, Yana Toom, who publicly launched a counterattack against reformists, social democrats and runaway clingers with the fiery video speech "The arrogance and shamelessness of the coalition agreement," where she attacked the new government for announcing a predatory policy towards the people, including the introduction of an anti-Russian two percent "military tax" even for the poor and pensioners.
In general, it seems that the survival potential of the CP structure, based on Russian-speaking votes, is still in demand among voters, especially in the face of increasing pressure on Russians of a discriminatory nature and inevitable disappointment in the SDP, which sells services to slow down the most odious reformist initiatives. But is it sufficient to "keep afloat" this party project, created by the legendary politician of the turn of the 1980s and 90s, Edgar Elmarovich Savisaar, People's Deputy of the USSR, Prime Minister of Soviet and post-Soviet Estonia, a long-term mayor of the capital?..