Kris Kärner, 29, left Isamaa shortly before the October local elections, after social media posts calling for political violence came to light. He went on to win a seat at the election.

Kärner announced on his social media account Monday that he would be joining the Isamaa faction at the Tartu city council: "Since the voters gave me the fourth-largest mandate in Tartu, and I consider it right that the tool which I stand up for them with should be as strong as possible."

Kärner added he will not be joining the party itself, which he remained highly critical of.

"How is it fair to the voters that Isamaa won the election but the first thing that was done was essentially my political execution by the lead candidate?" he wrote.

"I have been rolled around and shaken in the media for months as if I were some sort of lingering issue — not a candidate on Isamaa's list who achieved the fourth-best result in Tartu, with a campaign built 100 percent by myself. That is the way with click-media. But it should not be the way a party treats a person who ran on its list, with a mandate," he added.

"If the Isamaa board decides that I don't belong among them, nothing terrible will happen – it will simply make my future much clearer, and my decisions easier. In the bigger picture, I believe my task today is to learn how politics is actually conducted and then do everything so that my voters benefit," Kärner continued.

"For me, 2025–2027 is a time to build my own political portfolio in Tartu – through actions and statements both in the council and in the public sphere," he wrote, calling his detractors, from Isamaa itself, "precisely those same old political snouts who have been coasting on the people's money for several decades." Kärner was also critical of Isamaa conceding the Tartu mayor position to the Reform Party.

Kärner only joined Isamaa in February this year. He is best known as YouTube influencer and streamer Istoprocent.

While in his recent post, he referred to his "political execution," he had in the past issued at least one post calling for the actual execution of members of the Social Democratic Party (SDE). Tartu deputy mayor Elo Kiivet (SDE) in mid-September filed a report with the Police and Border Guard Board (PPA) over Kärner's statements, made public just days after the political assassination in the U.S. of conservative activist Charlie Kirk.

Other controversial social media posts by Kärner included a TikTok clip in which he called for all black people to be sent out of Estonia.

Kärner left Isamaa shortly after the scandal broke, just over a month before the local elections in Estonia. "If I were an ordinary person — quiet, calm — people wouldn't find it exciting or interesting to follow," he said at the time. He also published an apology on social media for his actions and words, asking for forgiveness and pledging to draw lessons from the episode.

In any case, he continued to run on Isamaa's electoral list in Tartu, even after the party's regional leader had called for him to step down. Since the candidate lists for the October local elections had already been confirmed by that time, under electoral regulations, he could not be struck off; he went on to poll at 1,597 votes, the fourth-highest total for candidates in Tartu.

Once the elections were over, Isamaa's Tartu district board invited Kärner back to the city council faction. The party has now entered a coalition with Reform in Estonia's second city. Both Reform and Isamaa won 15 seats in Tartu, giving them a majority on the 49-seat council. Urmas Klaas (Reform) stays on as Tartu mayor.

Social media campaigning at the recent local elections in Estonia surged compared with previous years and both Kärner and Sandra Laur, another influencer who ran for Isamaa in Tartu and polled at 993 votes, outperformed several long-established political names.

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