The Estonian United Left Party, the successor to the Communist Party of Estonia, received enough votes in the 2023 Riigikogu elections, largely thanks to Aivo Peterson who was convicted of treason, to secure €30,000 in annual state funding.

Following the last Riigikogu elections, politically active young people with left-wing views joined the party and began working to change its policies and historical image.

Last year, the party elected a new board and changed its name to the Estonian Left Alliance.

Nikita Leo, 27, who plans to run for the party's board in late October and also stand in the Riigikogu elections, told ERR that it is essentially a new party.

"We are only just getting started, so there is still a lot of work ahead. I definitely want to emphasize that although the legal entity is formally the same as before, in practice this is an entirely new party because all the people and ideas are new," Leo said.

According to Leo, members would have preferred to establish a new party and start with a clean slate. However, because establishing a new political party in Estonia is difficult, they decided it made more sense to build on an existing structure.

The party has just over 500 members, of whom around 60 to 70 are active.

"All the active members are people who joined the party after the rebranding a few years ago. Most of the overall membership consists of longstanding members who are not currently actively involved in the party's activities," Leo added.

"At the moment, we are primarily a party of young people," Leo said. "The age profile of our active members is more like that of a political party's youth wing than a party itself. There are a lot of young people, but of course there are some slightly older people as well. I would say the average age is somewhere in the 20s."

The party plans to run in next spring's Riigikogu elections.

"I can't give an exact number right now, but we probably won't have very many candidates," Leo acknowledged. "We are still trying to find candidates and would also like to involve people from outside the party. We are actively looking for people who are not party members but would be interested in running on our list. We also don't have enough money to field a full slate of candidates."

The electoral deposit for a full slate of candidates is €118,250, while the deposit for an individual candidate is less than €1,000. However, because the party does not have many candidates, it will be able to cover the deposits.

Nevertheless, the party believes the system needs to change.

"Running in elections is effectively behind a paywall, so to speak, and fielding a full slate of candidates is very expensive. This is problematic and people's opportunities to run in elections should not be restricted in this way," Leo said.

The party's election platform is being drafted and is nearly complete.

"I have been involved in putting it together myself and I think it will be quite strong. It includes proposals that no other party dares to make," Leo said.

The party's main focus is protecting workers' interests.

"In politics, you can't always promise everything to everyone and that's not what we're trying to do. Society consists of different groups whose interests may conflict, creating tensions. One of the main conflicts is between workers and owners. We are on the side of workers in this struggle and defend their interests. In fact, this means defending the interests of the majority because most of us are employees who would benefit from having more rights," Leo said.

He noted that the party's election platform may contain many proposals that other parties also promise to some extent. What sets the Left Alliance apart, however, is its ambition to secure worker representation on company boards.

"The current wording, although it may change, is that if a company has more than 50 employees, at least half of its board members must be employees of that same company," Leo said.

The Left Alliance's overarching goal is to ensure that democracy exists not only at the level of government but also in the workplace.

"This is very important because most of us are employees and spend most of our time at work," Leo said. "Unfortunately, we often have virtually no rights there: the owner is like a king and employees have very little say. We believe this needs to change. Just as the Constitution states that supreme power is vested in the people, the economy should operate on the principle that ultimate power within a company belongs to its employees."

The party is not yet certain what its voter base will look like.

"If you look at our new members, most of them are indeed very young, but our voter profile may turn out to be different. We would like to appeal to all age groups to some extent and we certainly don't want to remain exclusively a party for young people," Leo said.

The election platform also includes proposals aimed at pensioners.

"These are not merely promises to raise pensions, but substantive proposals," Leo emphasized. "For example, we want to establish a national program that would create hobby and interest groups specifically for older people. This would give them activities to participate in and opportunities to socialize, which is very important for many of them because they often feel lonely."

The party sees preserving the welfare state as a major domestic policy challenge.

"Free higher education, free healthcare and many other public services are under threat. A great many people would prefer to preserve these services and do not want to see cuts. So one of our goals is not only to maintain existing public services but also to expand them," Leo said.

In foreign policy, the party is particularly committed to standing up for Palestine.

"As you can see from our social media, we have repeatedly spoken out on this issue and participated in demonstrations. This is one particular issue we have been very actively involved in."

Leo emphasized that the party has zero tolerance for pro-Kremlin sentiment when it comes to relations with Russia.

"If you look at the party as a legal entity and what it may have been like historically, attitudes may have been somewhat different in the past. But as I said, all the active members are new. So in practice, this is an entirely new political force and we genuinely have zero tolerance for pro-Kremlin sentiment."

While the party received nearly 15,000 votes in the last Riigikogu elections with Aivo Peterson's support, it is not using that result to forecast its performance in the upcoming elections.

"The Riigikogu elections four years ago took place before the party's rebranding had begun. The rebranding started in late 2023 and all the new members have joined since then," Leo said.

"The party has changed so much in the meantime that it is now an entirely new political force and the people we appeal to have changed as well. I think there will be very little overlap with the people we appealed to in the previous elections. That is why it is so difficult to make any predictions at this point — essentially, these will be our first elections," he added.

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