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 existed as a community of young conservatives, mostly associated with the

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 ...

party during the 1990s. Res Publica was a member of the EPP (

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 Ch ...

) on the European level. It merged with

in 2006 to form the

Pro Patria and Res Publica Union Isamaa is a Christian-democratic and national-conservative 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 and Res Publica ...

. The party was founded under the name Union for the Republic – Res Publica (''Ühendus vabariigi eest – Res Publica''), but was commonly referred to as simply Res Publica and changed its name to Res Publica Party. The party won its first parliamentary elections ( in 2003) after being established. Their election slogans were "Vote for new politics" (''"Vali uus poliitika"'') and "Choose order" (''"Vali kord"''). They formed a coalition with the Reform Party and the People's Union. The coalition broke in 2005 as a result of opposition to the policies of Res Publica's minister of justice Vaher. At the time of its merging with Pro Patria, it was led by

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 ...

, a former Minister of Finance. The previous chairman

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 also Prime Minister from 10 April 2003 until 23 March 2005. Until the 2007 parliamentary elections, Res Publica was the largest party 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 Jus ...

, with 28 of 101 seats. On 4 April 2006, representatives of the

and the representatives of Res Publica decided to merge the two parties. A decision was made to form a new party, named

(''Isamaa ja Res Publica Liit''), after approval by general assemblies of both merging political forces. Approval was given by the general assemblies on 4 June 2006. The union took third place in the 2007 elections, which, though they resulted in a loss in the combined parties' strength in Parliament, was a stronger than expected showing.

References

External links

Official website of Union of Pro Patria and Res Publica
{{Authority control 2001 establishments in Estonia 2006 disestablishments in Estonia Conservative parties in Estonia Defunct political parties in Estonia International Democrat Union member parties Political parties established in 2001 Political parties disestablished in 2006