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Centre Party's ideological positioning

It should be noted that our Centre Party is not 'centrist' (also its leaders have supposed to be) in way the centrist parties in the Nordic countries are. Its name dates back to the beginning of 1990s when Edgar Savisaar was the leader of moderate wing of Estonian independence movement. Independence movement's radical wing consisted of parties that later formed Fatherland Union and Estonian National Independence Party. Savisaar's party that grew out of Popular Front was at that time correctly named Centrist Party as it took more moderate stance compared with conservatives and christian democtrats lead by later prime minister Mart Laar. In later years, in opposition to right wing governemts Savisaar's party turned out to become the champion of pensioners and other not so well-up people, so in fact it has represented social democratic views in many respects. From the beginning of 1990s up to 1995 and now again from 2003 on there has also been Social Democratic Party in Estonia. It was first formed by some members of Popular Front probably not happy with Savisaar's authoritarian tendencies and his distaste for more radical pro-independence politicians. Marju Lauristin was one of the leading members of social democrats this time. She chose the line of compromise between moderates and radical and later her Social Democratic Party which was quite small at the time joined M.Laar's reformist government. Later, as the support of SDP diminished, it fused with some other centrist and centre right parties and therefore actually never played a role of left wing party in Estonia. Savisaar's Centre Party on the other hand has enyoied very high ratings of popularity and good election result as it has been voted by more poor people discontent with shock therapy and later neo-liberal policies by successive right wing governments.