ERR News – After being cast out of the Reform Party on October 24, Silver Meikar warned of continuing corruption in the political landscape.
"Unfortunately, I was not invited to the meeting and no justification was provided [for the decision]," Meikar wrote in his blog on Wednesday.
"It is not right for a liberal party to shun substantive internal debate and launch disciplinary actions against those who draw attention to problems,“ he said.
Meikar continued: "It is unfortunate that I did not rea-lize at the right time where the party was going and my effort to make changes within the party was not successful. In addition to the dirty money problem, I have drawn attention to the lack of democracy within the party as well as to its arrogance toward the public. Leaving me out of the party does not mean that these problems have gone away.”
Speaking to journalists after the party's meeting on Wednesday, October 24, Prime Minister Andrus Ansip, the party chairman, said no one had defended Meikar and that the decision to expel him had been unanimous. He said Meikar had decided his own fate long ago and that colleagues no longer wanted to be in the same room with him.
"Instead of talking to his party companions, he chose some other means to achieve his own personal goals,” Ansip said. "Everyone has been co-vered with mud and not just in our party […] They were baselessly accused.”
A partisan for 15 years and one of the founders of the party's youth organization in Tartu, Meikar made a confession in an opinion article last May that triggered a scandal and a criminal investigation.
The former Parliament member said that he had donated 7,350 euros to the Reform Party on behalf of people whose names he did not know. Several other individuals later came forward with similar admissions. The Reform Party denied that the scheme was orchestrated by senior party officials. In clearing the party of criminal wrongdoing, prosecutors said the lack of evidence was due to the party having circled its wagons to avoid prosecution.
