On Thursday, non-affiliated MP Varro Vooglaid announced that he was leaving EKRE's Riigikogu faction, though not parliament itself. He cited disagreements with EKRE's leadership, including on foreign and security policy issues.

Õhtuleht subsequently reported that the disagreement had been triggered by a post Vooglaid made on his YouTube channel about Veterans Month. "Õhtuleht has been told that Vooglaid's aforementioned video was precisely what caused the dispute within EKRE's parliamentary faction. /.../ Allegedly, MP and former environment minister Rene Kokk, who is also a member of the Defense League, gave the party chairman an ultimatum: if the party leadership wanted Kokk to run in the next Riigikogu elections, something had to be done about Vooglaid," Õhtuleht wrote, in a report also summarized by ERR.

In a written comment sent to ERR on Friday, Rene Kokk said the claims made in Õhtuleht's article were a journalistic fabrication and that he would decide in the fall whether to run in the next elections.

"There has been no conflict between Varro and me. We briefly discussed the issue (the Blue Hepatica campaign and Veterans Month — ed.) and accept each other's differing views on the matter. It is difficult for me to see what benefit I, EKRE or Varro Vooglaid could gain from this improvised spin. Most likely, this is someone's political attempt to create intrigue among conservatives as campaigning for the 2027 Riigikogu elections is already underway," Kokk said.

Kokk added that since party chairman Martin Helme and Varro Vooglaid had already given their explanations, he had nothing further to add.

Varro Vooglaid also commented on the matter on social media, saying that the issue had never once been discussed within the faction, at least not with his participation.

"On the one hand, this falsehood distracts attention from the real and far more fundamental reasons, creating a misleading picture of what happened. On the other hand, it is unfair to Rene as well, portraying him in a completely false light. It is true that we have different views regarding the Blue Hepatica campaign and the attitudes underlying it and we have discussed this between ourselves. But Rene is certainly not the kind of man who would weave intrigues behind someone's back — those who know him know that," Vooglaid wrote.

Since Thursday's statements, neither Vooglaid nor EKRE chairman Martin Helme had publicly agreed to further explain Vooglaid's departure from the faction. Vooglaid's post was the first additional information on the matter.

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