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Union of Pro Patria and Res Publica
Union of Pro Patria and Res Publica; Isamaa ja Res Publica Liit
Leader	Mart Laar
Founded	4 June 2006
Headquarters	Tallinn
Ideology	Conservatism,; Liberal conservatism,; Christian democracy
International affiliation	Centrist Democrat International,; International Democrat Union
European affiliation	European People's Party
European Parliament Group	European People's Party
Official colours	Blue
Website
	www.isamaajarespublicaliit.ee
	Politics of Estonia; Political parties; Elections

Union of Pro Patria and Res Publica (Estonian: Isamaa ja Res Publica Liit, IRL) is an Estonian political party. It was founded on 4 June 2006 when two conservative parties, Pro Patria Union and Res Publica merged. Up to the 2007 parliamentary elections, the party held 32 seats out of 101 in the Riigikogu (the Estonian parliament) and one of Estonia's six seats in the European Parliament. The party is a member of the European People's Party (EPP). It has about 8,500 members. The merged party consisted of two separate boards and two party leaders, which was replaced by a unified board and leader in May 2007. Party's prime minister candidate was Mart Laar, who became a chairman of the party.

[edit] Pre-foundation

Prior to the merger, there was an extreme drop in public support for Res Publica after the government led by Juhan Parts was forced to step down, and Pro Patria had also been relatively marginalized after the fall of their own governing coalition. There was also concern among conservatives about splitting the vote between two parties with largely similar ideologies and being unable to oppose the much more cohesive left wing electorate, which was mostly rallied behind the Centre Party. On 4 April, 2006, representatives from the Pro Patria Union and Res Publica decided to merge the two parties, which took place officially on 4 June, 2006. Although originally the name For Estonia (Eesti Eest) was considered for the newly formed party, it was rejected and the provisional name has been used to date.

On 15 November 2006 the parties were officially joined as Party Union of Pro Patria and Res Publica (Erakond Isamaa ja Res Publica Liit).

[edit] 2007 parliamentary election results

The results of the 2007 parliamentary elections were not good for the party. The united party received 98,209 votes (17.9% of the total), a drop of 14.0%. As a result, it won 19 seats in the Riigikogu, a loss of 16, but still the third largest block in Parliament. Some analysts, however, pointed out that this was a stronger showing than expected for the new union, and there was a strong possibility that the Reform Party might enter into a coalition with it instead of the Center Party; and in fact in April 2007, the Union of Pro Patria and Res Publica did join the government.^[1]