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The recent Rahva Tahe incident has cast shade on Isamaa, the party's leader, Helir-Valdor Seeder (whose silhouette in fact appears in this image) says. Source: Priit Mürk/ERR
The recent corporate joining of the opposition Isamaa party has put the organization's reputation on the line, leading members say. Over four hundred members of a non-parliamentary party applied to join Isamaa at the same time, at a time when it has seen an internal challenge on its direction, met with a crackdown on internal dissent and the postponement of leadership elections.
Party chair Helir-Valdor Seeder addressed members via a letter in which he acknowledged that the mass joining of new members which recently took place in Tartu had cast a pall over Isamaa as a whole, adding the Tartu branch party workers will now have to sift through all 400 or so applications to see which ones are sincere.