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I recently met with Valdur Latvee, international secretary for the Estonia Greens. A new law in the country will take effect in October, barring parties having less than 5% of the vote from parliament.
An even greater problem is that parties with less than 1,000 members will not even be eligible to stand for election. This applies to the Estonia Greens, who can now no longer be registered as a political party. Instead, they must register as a non-governmental organization.
Consequently, the Estonia Greens have taken other steps to influence parliament. Following contacts with several political parties, the Greens have agreed to cooperate with the Center Party. This will give the Greens possibilities to enter 2 candidates among the first 20 on the Center Party list. If the party does reasonably well in the elections, the Greens will have 1 or 2 representatives elected. In the next few years, the Estonia Greens will work to improve their membership with the hope of reaching more than 1000 members.
The Federation will follow developments closely. The Estonia Greens are a valuable contributor to the Baltic Green Network and an important member party of the Federation.