On Thursday, Varro Vooglaid announced that he is leaving the Estonian Conservative People's Party's (EKRE) Riigikogu faction due to a loss of trust in him.

With Vooglaid's departure, there are now 18 non-affiliated, or so-called "window-seat," MPs in the Riigikogu.

The highest number of non-affiliated MPs since Estonia regained independence was in the Riigikogu's eighth composition, elected in 1995, when there were 27 such lawmakers.

However, this century has never before seen so many non-affiliated MPs in parliament.

That said, the figure of 18 does not fully reflect the actual situation. Under Riigikogu rules, MPs who leave one faction are not allowed to join another.

In reality, there are seven genuinely non-affiliated members of parliament: in addition to Vooglaid, they are Enn Eesmaa, Kalle Grünthal, Leo Kunnas, Tõnis Mölder, Kersti Sarapuu and Jaak Valge. The remaining MPs have joined a new political party and are therefore non-affiliated in name only.

Lawmakers leaving parliamentary factions and changes in party affiliation have mainly been driven by internal disputes within two political parties.

Center's exodus after Kõlvart elected party chairman

The first of these took place within the Center Party when Mihhail Kõlvart and Tanel Kiik faced off in the party's 2023 leadership election.

Kiik represented the party's old leadership establishment, effectively belonging to former Prime Minister Jüri Ratas' camp, while Kõlvart represented a new direction for the party. In the September 10 election, Kõlvart received 543 votes to Kiik's 489 and was elected party leader.

Within just two weeks, the party lost two votes in the Riigikogu when Jaanus Karilaid and Tõnis Mölder joined Isamaa in quick succession. Mölder was later named as a suspect in a bribery investigation, left the party and has remained unaffiliated ever since.

In November of the same year, Maria Jufereva-Skuratovski said she was leaving the party to join the Reform Party.

In January of the following year, Kiik and five other Center Party members — Jaak Aab, Andre Hanimägi, Ester Karuse, Enn Eesmaa and Kersti Sarapuu — also announced they were leaving the party.

At a press conference held in the Riigikogu, Kiik, Aab, Hanimägi and Karuse announced that they would join the Social Democratic Party. Eesmaa and Sarapuu have remained non-affiliated MPs ever since.

Infighting at EKRE results in new party and founding members' exit

The second major split took place within EKRE. In May 2024, Silver Kuusik announced that he would run against Martin Helme for the party leadership.

Helme responded by saying that Kuusik's candidacy was backed by Jaak Valge and Henn Põlluaas, who, he claimed, wanted to stage a power shift within the party and turn EKRE into a mainstream political party.

Just a few days later, EKRE's leadership announced that the aforementioned members had been expelled from the party. According to Helme, this was because they had damaged the party's reputation and election campaign. Following that, MPs Ants Frosch, Alar Laneman and non-party member Leo Kunnas, who belonged to the EKRE parliamentary faction, also announced they were leaving.

Põlluaas, Valge and Frosch later founded the party Estonian Nationalists and Conservatives. As of today, only Valge remains a member of the party they created.

Põlluaas and Frosch later joined Isamaa, saying that Estonian Nationalists and Conservatives had failed to find a clear direction and place on the political landscape.

Laneman announced that he was joining the Reform Party and its Riigikogu faction, while Leo Kunnas remains a non-affiliated MP.

Eviction, rediscovery and a fuel card

In addition, Peeter Ernits and Kalle Grünthal have also left the EKRE parliamentary group.

Grünthal left both the party and the faction after facing public criticism over excessive use of a fuel card. According to Grünthal, he left EKRE because the controversy surrounding him was damaging the party's reputation. He has not joined another parliamentary faction since.

Ernits entered the Riigikogu as an alternate member after Kert Kingo was convicted of fraud in court. By the time Ernits became an MP, he was no longer a member of EKRE and after spending a few months as a non-affiliated lawmaker, he announced that he was rejoining the Center Party.

Züleyxa Izmailova also entered the Riigikogu as an alternate member, replacing Eesti 200 MP Johanna-Maria Lehtme who became embroiled in a funding scandal involving the NGO Slava Ukraini.

Eesti 200 itself expelled Izmailova from the party, stating that she had repeatedly violated principles set out in the party's statutes.

Prior to her expulsion, Izmailova said, following Kalev Stoicescu's resignation from the Eesti 200 board, that tensions had existed within the party for a long time. Attention was also drawn to her remarks during Riigikogu debates on the construction of a nuclear power plant.

After being expelled from the party, Izmailova joined the Social Democratic Party and its parliamentary faction.

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