Isamaa is a

Christian-democratic Christian democracy (sometimes named Centrist democracy) is a political ideology that emerged in 19th-century Europe under the influence of Catholic social teaching and neo-Calvinism. It was conceived as a combination of modern democratic ...

and

national-conservative National conservatism is a nationalist variant of conservatism that concentrates on upholding national and cultural identity. National conservatives usually combine nationalism with conservative stances promoting traditional cultural values, ...

political party in Estonia. It was founded on 4 June 2006 under the name of "Pro Patria and Res Publica Union", by the merger of two conservative parties,

Pro Patria Union The Pro Patria Union ( et, Isamaaliit, meaning literally Fatherland Union) was a national-conservative political party in Estonia. The party was founded on 2 December 1995 from a merger of the Estonian National Independence Party and the Pro Pat ...

and

Res Publica Party Res Publica Party ( et, Erakond Res Publica) was a political party in Estonia that self-identified as conservative. Established as a party on 8 December 2001, the political organisation Res Publica was founded already as early as 1989 and exist ...

. Up to the 2007 parliamentary elections, the party held 32 seats out of 101 in the

Riigikogu The Riigikogu (; from Estonian ''riigi-'', of the state, and ''kogu'', assembly) is the unicameral parliament of Estonia. In addition to approving legislation, the Parliament appoints high officials, including the Prime Minister and Chief Just ...

and one of Estonia's six seats in the

European Parliament The European Parliament (EP) is one of the Legislature, legislative bodies of the European Union and one of its seven Institutions of the European Union, institutions. Together with the Council of the European Union (known as the Council and in ...

. The party is a member of the

European People's Party The European People's Party (EPP) is a European political party with Christian-democratic, conservative, and liberal-conservative member parties. A transnational organisation, it is composed of other political parties. Founded by primarily ...

(EPP). The merged party consisted of two separate boards and two party leaders, which was replaced by a unified board and leader in May 2007. The party's prime minister candidate was

Mart Laar Mart Laar (born 22 April 1960) is an Estonian politician and historian. He served as the Prime Minister of Estonia from 1992 to 1994 and from 1999 to 2002. Laar is credited with having helped bring about Estonia's rapid economic development dur ...

, who became a chairman of the party. In 2018, its name was changed to "Isamaa", meaning literally "Fatherland". Ideologically, it has been positioned on the

centre-right Centre-right politics lean to the right of the political spectrum, but are closer to the centre. From the 1780s to the 1880s, there was a shift in the Western world of social class structure and the economy, moving away from the nobility and ...

right-wing Right-wing politics describes the range of Ideology#Political ideologies, political ideologies that view certain social orders and Social stratification, hierarchies as inevitable, natural, normal, or desirable, typically supporting this pos ...

on the political spectrum, and it is

economically liberal Economic liberalism is a political and economic ideology that supports a market economy based on individualism and private property in the means of production. Adam Smith is considered one of the primary initial writers on economic liberali ...

History

Pre-foundation

Prior to the merger, there was an extreme drop in public support for Res Publica after the government led by

Juhan Parts Juhan Parts (born 27 August 1966) is an Estonian politician who was Prime Minister of Estonia from 2003 to 2005 and Minister of Economic Affairs and Communications from 2007 to 2014. Juhan Parts is a member of Isamaa party. Education Born in T ...

was forced to step down, and Pro Patria had also been relatively marginalized after the fall of their own governing coalition. There was also concern among conservatives about splitting the vote between two parties with largely similar ideologies and being unable to oppose the much more cohesive left wing electorate, which was mostly rallied behind the Centre Party. On 4 April 2006, representatives from the

and Res Publica decided to merge the two parties, which took place officially on 4 June 2006. Although originally the name For Estonia (''Eesti Eest'') was considered for the newly formed party, it was rejected, and the provisional name was used until the new name was adopted in 2018. On 15 November 2006 the parties were officially merged as Pro Patria and Res Publica Union (''Erakond Isamaa ja Res Publica Liit'').

2007–2015

2007 Estonian parliamentary election Parliamentary elections were held in Estonia on 4 March 2007. The newly elected 101 members of the 11th Riigikogu assembled at Toompea Castle in Tallinn within ten days of the election. It was the world's first nationwide vote where part of the ...

the party won over 18 per cent of the vote and joined coalition, led by their former junior coalition partners, the Reform Party. This cooperation was retained up until 2014, when the

Social Democratic Party The name Social Democratic Party or Social Democrats has been used by many political parties in various countries around the world. Such parties are most commonly aligned to social democracy as their political ideology. Active parties For ...

replaced The Fatherland as junior coalition partner.

2015–2022

In 2015 parliamentary election, IRL lost 9 seats and managed to keep 14. It joined the Reform Party and Social Democrats to form the government under

Taavi Rõivas Taavi Rõivas (; born 26 September 1979) is a Estonian politician, former Prime Minister of Estonia from 2014 to 2016 and former leader of the Reform Party. Before his term as the Prime Minister, Rõivas was the Minister of Social Affairs fro ...

. As the Pro Patria and Res Publica Union was the biggest loser in the elections, chairman

Urmas Reinsalu Urmas Reinsalu (born 22 June 1975) is an Estonian politician serving as the minister of foreign affairs since 18 July 2022 and previously between April 2019 and 26 January 2021. Before that, Urmas has served as the minister of defence between 2 ...

announced he would resign as party chairman after the party's congress in June 2015. On 6 June 2015, he was replaced by

Margus Tsahkna Margus Tsahkna (born 13 April 1977) is an Estonian politician, one of the leaders of new liberal Estonia 200 party, former leader of the conservative Isamaa party, former Minister of Defence in Jüri Ratas' cabinet and Minister of Social Protecti ...

. On 7 November 2016, the SDE and IRL announced that they were asking Prime Minister Taavi Rõivas to resign and were planning on negotiating a new majority government. In the following coalition talks Center Party, SDE and IRL formed a new

coalition A coalition is a group formed when two or more people or groups temporarily work together to achieve a common goal. The term is most frequently used to denote a formation of power in political or economical spaces. Formation According to ''A Gui ...

led by the Centre Party's chairman,

Jüri Ratas Jüri Ratas (; born 2 July 1978) is an Estonian politician who was the 18th prime minister of Estonia from 2016 to 2021. He has been Leader of the Centre Party since 2016, and was the mayor of Tallinn from 2005 to 2007. Jüri Ratas' first cab ...

. The new coalition was sworn in on 23 November. In April 2017, Tsahkna announced that he would not seek re-election as chairman. He was followed by

Helir-Valdor Seeder Helir-Valdor Seeder (born 7 September 1964) is an Estonian politician. He is a member of the parliament, current chairman of the Isamaa and served as Minister of Agriculture from 2007 to 2014. Seeder has a master's degree in economics from the E ...

on 13 May 2017. On 26 June 2017, Tsahkna and MP

Marko Mihkelson Marko Mihkelson (born 30 November 1969) is an Estonian journalist and politician representing the liberal Reform Party (Renew Europe) in the Parliament of Estonia. Mihkelson was born in Valga, and was first elected to the parliament in 2003 a ...

announced that they were leaving the party, dropping the amount of IRL MPs to 12. After 2019 parliamentary election, Isamaa joined government with Centre Party and

Estonian Conservative People's Party The Conservative People's Party of Estonia ( et, Eesti Konservatiivne Rahvaerakond, EKRE) is a national-conservative and right-wing populist political party in Estonia. It is currently led by Martin Helme. It was founded in March 2012, with the m ...

. This government collapsed on January, 2021, when Jüri Ratas resigned as Prime Minister. In 2021, tensions over cooperation with EKRE within the party became public and caused split. Dissenters on August, 2022, formed

Parempoolsed Parempoolsed () is a self-declared fiscally conservative political party in Estonia. As of September 2022, the party has only one member of parliament: Siim Kiisler. History The party was formed in August 2022, mostly by a split-off group of ...

(Right–wingers). By July 2022, Centre Party was expelled from the governmental positions. As a result, the government, led by

Kaja Kallas Kaja Kallas (; born 18 June 1977) is an Estonian politician who has been serving as the prime minister of Estonia since 2021. The leader of the Reform Party since 2018, she was a Member of Parliament from 2019 to 2021, and previously between ...

, briefly governed in minority. After negotiations with the Social Democratic Party and the Fatherland, a new coalition was formed.

Electoral results

Parliamentary elections

European Parliament elections

Chairmen

Taavi Veskimägi Taavi Veskimägi (born 20 November 1974) is a former Estonian state official and politician and the managing director of the Estonian electric power transmission system operator Elering. He is a former Minister of Finance (2003–2005) and one ...

(Res Publica) and Tõnis Lukas (Pro Patria) (2006–2007) *

(2007–2012) *

(2012–2015) *

(2015–2017) *

(2017–present)

References

External links

Official website
{{International Democrat Union 2006 establishments in Estonia Political parties established in 2006 Christian democratic parties in Europe International Democrat Union member parties Conservative parties in Estonia Member parties of the European People's Party National conservative parties Social conservative parties Political parties in Estonia