Estonian populist party lists chairman for EU election

HELSINKI – A far-right Estonian populist party now in talks to form a government in the small Baltic nation has listed its chairman as the party's top candidate in the European Union parliament election in May.

The Estonian Conservative People's Party said Saturday that Mart Helme, 69, was followed in the candidate list by his son, vice chairman Martin Helme, 42.

Mart Helme is a former diplomat and a historian who in 2013 over took over as the leader of the nationalist, anti-immigration party known by the acronym EKRE. In Estonia's March 3 election, the father-son combination led the opposition EKRE to capture 17.8 percent of the vote and become the country's third-largest party.

EKRE is talking about forming a three-party coalition government with the left-leaning Center Party and the conservative Fatherland.