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Without a Tinge of Red: The Fall and Rise of Estonian Greens

2009; Routledge; Volume: 40; Issue: 3 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1080/01629770903118740

1751-7877

Allan Sikk, Rune Holmgaard Andersen,

Eastern European Communism and Reforms

Click to increase image sizeClick to decrease image sizeKeywords: Green PartyEstoniapolitical partiesenvironmental politicspost-materialismleft and right Acknowledgements The authors wish to thank Daniel Bochsler, Seàn Hanley, an anonymous reviewer and the participants of the 2008 BASEES conference for constructive feedback on earlier drafts of the essay. An earlier version of the essay was presented at the BASEES Conference, 29–31 March 2008, Fitzwilliam College, Cambridge. The research for the paper was partly financed by the Estonian targeted finance project SF018012s08. Notes Notes 1 We do not intend to give a full account of pre-independence Green movement – its story has been well covered by Rein Taagepera (1993 Taagepera, R. 1993. Estonia: return to independence, Boulder: Westview Press. [Google Scholar]) and Matthew Auer (1998 Auer, MR. 1998. Environmentalism and Estonia's independence movement. Nationalities Papers, 26(4): 659–76. [Taylor & Francis Online] , [Google Scholar]) among others. In Estonian, Juhan Aare (1999 Aare, J. 1999. Fosforiidisõda 1971–1989, Tallinn: Kirilille Kirjastus. [Google Scholar]) presents a detailed insider's account of events from 1971 to 1989. 2 In fact the first battles of the 'Phosphate War' took place as early as 1971 among central authorities and some local leaders and Estonian scientists (Aare 1999 Aare, J. 1999. Fosforiidisõda 1971–1989, Tallinn: Kirilille Kirjastus. [Google Scholar]). 3 Authors' interview with V. Lahtvee, Tallinn, 20 March 2008. 4 These outings have continued to the present day: in 2007 the eighteenth expedition took place. 5 The Bronze Soldier made headlines in the international press as it was relocated amidst rioting in April 2007. 6 Even though the stated aim of the Royalists was to create a constitutional monarchy and the party was known for its antics in the parliament, they were a protest party rather than a joke. 7 Authors' interview with V. Lahtvee, Tallinn, 20 March 2008. 8 1999 was the year when the Green Party disappeared, but also when the country recovered from the aftershocks of Asian and Russian economic crises. 9 Russia cut gas exports to Ukraine in the beginning of 2006. A few weeks later, explosions caused disruptions in the gas supply to Georgia (Hauser & Kernic 2006 Hauser, G and Kernic, F. 2006. European Security in Transition, Aldershot: Ashgate. [Google Scholar], pp. 155, 158). 10 Postimees, 21 July 2007. 11 Authors' interview with V. Lahtvee, Tallinn, 20 March 2008. Estonia has met its electricity needs from oil-shale-based power plants in the north-east of the country. However, that comes at the cost of substantial CO2 emissions and oil shale will lose its competitive edge once electricity markets are opened up according to EU rules. For more, see a report by Estonian Foreign Policy Institute (2006, pp. 11, 16). 12 Regularly updated lists of party members are publicly available over the internet (https://ar.eer.ee/erakonnad.py, accessed 23 April 2009). In order to be secure against possible mass defections the 'sustainable' number of party members is even higher. 13 Ten years earlier he had been acquitted in a high-profile court case related to the sale of roubles following the 1992 currency reform. The original scandal led to the resignation of Prime Minister Mart Laar in 1994 (Estonian Court Acquits … 1996). 14 Authors' interview with V. Lahtvee, Tallinn, 20 March 2008. 15 This strategy has been advocated for studying Greens and other small parties by Birch (2009 Birch, S. 2009. Real Progress: Prospects for Green Party Support in Britain. Parliamentary Affairs, 62(1): 53–71. [Crossref], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]). 16 In 2008, the statute of the party was changed to establish a single leader. 17 Authors' interview with V. Lahtvee, Tallinn, 20 March 2008. 18 Both the Reform Party and the Pro Patria and Res Publica Union are clearly on the right of center. Even though the Social Democrats have moved left in recent years, it is still a relatively rightist social democratic party by European standards. 19 The share of non-Estonians among the population of the five largest cities is considerably higher than among the population at large. 20 The electoral rolls in Estonia are based on constantly updated data from population registers. Changing registration after moving from one municipality to another is not strictly compulsory and is often not done out of neglect or because of benefits that go with it (i.e. childcare and schools). 21 The same applies for the Czech Republic (p = 0.12). 22 There are minor exceptions of environmental parties that are not clearly on the left – e.g. the environmental niche in Sweden has been occupied by the Centre Party (Rohrschneider 1993 Rohrschneider, R. 1993. New Party versus Old Left Realignments: Environmental Attitudes, Party Policies, and Partisan Affiliations in Four West European Countries. The Journal of Politics, 55(3): 682–701. [Crossref], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]). 23 For example Tammert (2007 Tammert, P. 2007. 'Rohelised vasak-parempoolsel skaalal' Postimees, 23 March [Google Scholar]) and the authors' interview with V. Lahtvee, Tallinn, 20 March 2008. 24 Nevertheless, the electoral campaign of the Green Party paled against those of other parties entering the parliament (Kokkuvõte… n.d.). 25 Elsewhere in the essay we have discussed the impact of particular candidates on Green Party support. That does not contradict our findings here. On the one hand, a substantial number of Green voters still gave some importance to particular candidates. On the other hand, the Estonian ballot structure makes voting for a party without prominent candidates in the district tricky. Even though the candidates are organized by party lists, the voters can only cast their vote for a particular candidate. Hence, if a voter does not recognize any of the candidates, the incentive for voting for the party may decrease. 26 'Programmi põhiseisukohad', §43, available at: http://wiki.erakond.ee/images/4/45/EERuusprogramm.pdf, accessed 24 April 2009. 27 We have a reason to be optimistic about the chances of studying further development of the Green Party – its support endured or even increased in public opinion polls after the elections, reaching 12% in early 2008 (EMOR 2008 EMOR (2008) Toetused erakondadele. available at: http://www.emor.ee/failid/erakonnad.html, accessed 26 March 2008 [Google Scholar]).