Mihhail Kõlvart re-elected Center Party leader
Mihhail Kõlvart was returned as Center Party chair at a congress held Sunday.
Kõlvart ran unopposed at the party congress, held in Paide, which also saw 21 candidates running for the 14-member Center Party board.
About 500 delegates from across Estonia were expected to attend the congress at the Paide Music and Theatre House.
In his opening speech at the Paide Muusika- ja Teatrimaja, Kõlvart noted that the party had proven wrong those who had said it was finished, and had risen anew.
"This was our competitors' forecast, it was the experts' forecast and, of course, the media's forecast. Today the Centre Party can state that the local elections have been won. We finished the elections in first place," he said.
Center is now in coalition in Tallinn with Isamaa, after a year-and-a-half out of office. That this happened was down to competitors being weak, Kõlvart said, while Center's renewed strength makes it an appealing coalition partner to other parties.
Kõlvart also noted that the bulk of a fine issued over illegal donations has also been paid off.
He also said the party does not seek standoffs. "We seek goals in order to unite people," he added.
The 14-member board elected Sunday includes Center's Riigikogu faction chair Lauri Laats, its two MEPs: Jana Toom and Jaak Madison, and MPs including Anastassia Kovalenko-Kõlvart and Vadim Belobrovtsev; former government minister Anneli Ott, Mayor of Vinni Erki Savisaar, and former Narva mayor Jaan Toots.
Laats, Toom, Toots, and Madison were appointed party deputy chairs.
Former Tallinn deputy mayor Kalle Klandorf was confirmed to continue as chair of Center's honor court, and the party's audit committee was also chosen at Sunday's congress.
Kõlvart was Tallinn mayor from 2019 to March 2024, when he was ousted in a vote of no-confidence. The Center-Isamaa coalition entered office in Tallinn earlier this month, with Peeter Raudsepp, a non-politico Isamaa appointee, as mayor for the first two years of the alliance's four-year term. The Center party will hold the mayoral role for the second half of the term. Kõlvart himself was elected Tallinn city council leader.
The party was last in office at the national level in 2022.
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Editor: Andrew Whyte, Johanna Alvin
