Talk:Estonian Centre Party

Centre Party's ideological positioning

It should be noted that our Centre Party is not 'centrist' (also its leaders have supposed to be) in way the centrist parties in the Nordic countries are. Its name dates back to the beginning of 1990s when Edgar Savisaar was the leader of moderate wing of Estonian independence movement. Independence movement's radical wing consisted of parties that later formed Fatherland Union and Estonian National Independence Party. Savisaar's party that grew out of Popular Front was at that time correctly named Centrist Party as it took more moderate stance compared with conservatives and christian democtrats lead by later prime minister Mart Laar. In later years, in opposition to right wing governemts Savisaar's party turned out to become the champion of pensioners and other not so well-up people, so in fact it has represented social democratic views in many respects. From the beginning of 1990s up to 1995 and now again from 2003 on there has also been Social Democratic Party in Estonia. It was first formed by some members of Popular Front probably not happy with Savisaar's authoritarian tendencies and his distaste for more radical pro-independence politicians. Marju Lauristin was one of the leading members of social democrats this time. She chose the line of compromise between moderates and radical and later her Social Democratic Party which was quite small at the time joined M.Laar's reformist government. Later, as the support of SDP diminished, it fused with some other centrist and centre right parties and therefore actually never played a role of left wing party in Estonia. Savisaar's Centre Party on the other hand has enyoied very high ratings of popularity and good election result as it has been voted by more poor people discontent with shock therapy and later neo-liberal policies by successive right wing governments.

To Electionworld: I suggest mentioning 'Centrism' as CP's official ideology. According to real politics the party is usually considered by Estonians the most left wing party among the six parties represented in Riigikogu. I suggest that we exclude the label 'social liberal' as 'social democratic' already includes both more centrist (i.e social liberal) tendencies as well as left-leaning politics.

Social democracy and social liberalism are not one and the same. You don't need to be a social democrat to be left-wing. The party's website describes its position as centrist and liberal. So I really prefer to have social liberalism in. BTW could you please sign your remarks. Electionworld 18:08, 13 November 2005 (UTC)

I added infobox as it helps to bring forth more important facts. Although incomplete (I had created the 'Estonia Poltical Party' template just minutes before), I still regard somewhat necessary to keep it for the the others might contribute to this sphere.

OK, let this 'liberalism' be maintained, although I myself object to calling our Centre Party a liberal party in whatever respect. As far as I know, European liberalism (especially social liberalism) is quite pro-EU (europhile), our Centrist Party on the other hand was the only party amongst our main political parties to call voters to reject EU membership. The word liberal sounds weird concerning party leader's authoritarian tendecies, too. Constanz 15:19, 14 November 2005 (UTC)

The word gets some odd uses. Most Americans, for example, consider Japan's Liberal Democratic Party to be neither Liberal nor Democratic, and barely a party. —The preceding unsigned comment was added by Orangemike (talk • contribs) 18:37, 3 April 2007 (UTC).

It is very hard for me to accept the Estonian Centre Party being a "left wing populist" party if we compare its politics to other European parties. So I deleted "left wing populism" on the info box. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Reskelinen (talk • contribs) 17:34, 9 January 2011 (UTC)

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Center Party is a center-left political party. There are dozens of references to this, it is taken for granted in Estonia. Thus, omitting signs of left-centrism is misleading to the reader.

One can notice the repeated wishes of Wikipedia editors from Estonia to emphasize only its populism in the case of the Center Party and to hide its leftism. This cannot be considered a good or correct approach, insofar as it does not objectively reflect the party's positions.

It is also worth noting that in January 2024 more liberal MPs left the Center Party faction in parliament, this may change the party's position on the conservatism-liberalism axis. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Capot90 (talk • contribs) 21:41, 8 January 2024 (UTC)

Not a member of liberal international

The website of the liberal international [1] does not list this party as a member. Any evidence otherwise?--Barend 13:40, 3 April 2007 (UTC)

Propaganda wars

The article really-really-really needs section on the latest propaganda wars against estonian government. After the unsuccessful elections for Keskerakond it has done antigovernment propaganda in every way possible, using news outlets, buying air time in Kalev Sport, printing newspaper Pealinn, flooding cities with posters, etc. Latest development being propaganda posters in Tallinn kindergartens!

I would write something up myself, but I am not sure if I want to start fighting with Kesknoored (Keskerakond youth organization) who is reportedly tasked to keep an eye on wikipedia pages related to Edgar Savisaar and Keskerakond. Suva Чего? 17:35, 25 March 2009 (UTC)

You might want to word it like "against central government". This campaign is resembling the anti-federal-power populist campaigns sometimes found in USA, except that the Estonians don't call their central government "federal". Διγουρεν_{Εμπρος!} 19:18, 25 March 2009 (UTC)

In case anybody was wondering: I'm very aware of the pun inherent in this. But then again, so is the party itself, which has ran a weekly newspaper Centre of the Week, Week of the centre (or Midweek, Estonian: Kesknädal) for quite a while, for just one example. Διγουρεν_{Εμπρος!} 09:43, 23 May 2009 (UTC)

The party name is translated into English as Centre party, not Central party. See ghits. --Miacek (t) 10:14, 23 May 2009 (UTC)

It this really social liberalism party?

They vote no on same-sex marriage in Estonia. How can it be classified as "social liberalist"? I think they are just liberal conservatists. GogoLion (talk) 12:25, 31 July 2023 (UTC)

The party is definitely conservative. The party's leadership and membership has expressed their anti-same sex marriage stance as well as other traditionally conservative stances elaborated on in the articles. User:ThecentreCZ this should be noted to you as well. BananasAreViolet (talk) 12:53, 21 August 2023 (UTC)

Though on revision, there is a quite relevant liberal branch in the party, so I marked the party down for having factions of both liberals and conservatives as it more or less matches the observations of political pundits and people within the party, sources cited. BananasAreViolet (talk) 12:48, 22 August 2023 (UTC)