Very reassuring about Europe, I continue to think thjat people don't realize the major impact of the next European Elections. I won't be long Eur$ ahead og the election could see a much Stronger $
Martin Helme of Estonia’s nationalist EKRE party will join EU finance officials in Brussels
The eurozone's finance ministers club has a new member: a far-right populist who wants “blacks to go back” and is determined to block ever closer union.
Martin Helme, of Estonia's nationalist EKRE party, will be the newbie around the table when EU finance ministers meet in Brussels on Friday morning. But it's his party's extreme stances on race, immigration, and the EU project — rather than his views on financial policy — that are the talk of the town.
EKRE has been in government less than a month but Mr Helme and his father (party chairman) are already embroiled in a scandal over salutes critics say are nods to white supremacy (pictured below). Marine Le Pen was also snapped making the gesture this week.
The FT sat down with Mr Helme on his first visit to Brussels. He vowed to keep flashing the “OK” sign that has been condemned by Estonia's president (read the interview here).
EKRE's surprise entry into power as a junior coalition partner with the liberal party of Prime Minister Juri Ratas has alarmed Brussels. The nationalist outfit was the smallest party in Estonia's parliament four years ago. It more than doubled its vote share in March, riding a wave of anti-migrant sentiment and pledging to protect Estonia's “indigenous” population.
As for Mr Helme, he told Estonian television in 2013: “If you're black, go back” and that he wants “Estonia to be a white country”. He stood by his comments when quizzed by the FT. “People who refuse to participate in collective national suicide through immigration are labelled racists,” he said.
Having fiercely opposed Estonia's accession to the EU, Mr Helme says he is not a supporter of an Estonian exit. The party's election manifesto however includes a vague promise to hold a referendum should the European Commission become too powerful.
Once a byword for political stability, EKRE's surge has shaken assumptions about the Baltic country's commitment to pro-European policies.
But can the coalition survive? Plenty of Europe's mainstream governments have experimented with bringing the far-right into the fold. Finland's last conservative coalition allied with the Eurosceptic True Finns.They ended up splintering into rival factions and losing ground with voters.
Austria's chancellor Sebastian Kurz is in bed with the extreme right Freedom party. He's having a harder time keeping a handle on them.
The Estonian case may well end up showing the risks of struggling mainstream parties breaking the cordon sanitaire with populists. Support for Mr Ratas's liberals has plummeted as much as 40 per cent and they will struggle to win a single MEP in next week's EU elections.
EKRE meanwhile — which won 17.8 per cent of the vote — are dominating the country's political discourse and airwaves. One Estonian official says the coalition government is now de facto led by the populists and their virulently nationalist agenda rather than by Mr Ratas.
Mr Helme says he is relishing the prospect of being in government for the next four years. “We are in it for the long run. Estonian domestic politics will be rock and roll for quite some time.”