The Estonian United Left Party ( et, Eestimaa Ühendatud Vasakpartei, russian: Объединённая левая партия Эстонии, ) is a

political party A political party is an organization that coordinates candidates to compete in a particular country's elections. It is common for the members of a party to hold similar ideas about politics, and parties may promote specific ideological or p ...

Estonia Estonia, formally the Republic of Estonia, is a country by the Baltic Sea in Northern Europe. It is bordered to the north by the Gulf of Finland across from Finland, to the west by the sea across from Sweden, to the south by Latvia, an ...

representing the Russian minority in Estonia. It is a member of the

Party of the European Left The Party of the European Left (PEL), commonly abbreviated European Left, is a European political party that operates as an association of democratic socialist and communist political parties in the European Union and other European countries. ...

History

On 28 June 2008, the Estonian Left Party (a party comprising most of the remnants of the post-1990 Communist Party of Estonia) and the Constitution Party (one of two parties representing the Russian minority in Estonia) merged to form the Estonian United Left Party (''Eestimaa Ühendatud Vasakpartei''). Despite the party's professed adherence to a left-wing direction, some observers and journalists have noted and claimed that the party is perceived to be more interested in catering to Russian minority politics and has been relatively marginal in Estonian politics.In particular, party chairman Mstislav Rusakov made a comment about the party's apparent obscurity for an interview for

Eesti Rahvusringhääling Eesti Rahvusringhääling (ERR) – ''Estonian Public Broadcasting'' – is a publicly funded and owned radio and television organisation created in Estonia on 1 June 2007 to take over the functions of the formerly separate Eesti Raadi ...

: "The problem is to convey this information to people, because, as I already said, go out into the street, ask: "The United Left Party ...?", they will tell you: "What is this?". Meanwhile, in an opinion article for the online Russian-language edition of

Postimees ''Postimees'' () is an Estonian daily newspaper established on 5 June 1857, by Johann Voldemar Jannsen. In 1891, it became the first daily newspaper in Estonia. Its current editor-in-chief is Priit Hõbemägi. The paper has approximately 250 ...

, Valery Saïkovski asserts that the party is only relevant for Russian nationalist purposes. In 2018, there were posters in Tallinn allegedly from the EULP that endorsed

Pavel Grudinin Pavel Nikolayevich Grudinin (russian: link=no, Павел Николаевич Грудинин; born 20 October 1960) is a Russian politician and entrepreneur. Previously, he was a Municipal Deputy of the city settlement Vidnoye and Chairman o ...

, the presidential candidate from the

Communist Party of the Russian Federation The Communist Party of the Russian Federation (CPRF; russian: Коммунистическая Партия Российской Федерации; КПРФ, Kommunisticheskaya Partiya Rossiyskoy Federatsii; KPRF) is a left-wing nationalist and ...

running in the 2018 Russian presidential election. However, the party has denied that they are responsible for these posters, and the Russian Embassy in Estonia called them "low quality craft".

Election results

Parliamentary elections

European Parliament elections

References

External links

Older dormant website of the party.
2008 establishments in Estonia Democratic socialist parties in Europe Ecosocialist parties Party of the European Left member parties Political parties established in 2008 Political parties in Estonia Russian political parties in Estonia Socialist parties in Estonia {{Europe-socialist-party-stub