Ruuben Kaalep

Ruuben Kaalep (born 21 September 1993) is a far-right Estonian politician and poet. He was a member of the XIV Riigikogu. He is a founder of the Conservative People's Party of Estonia's youth organization, Blue Awakening.

Accusations of Nazism, anti-Semitism and right-wing extremism In April 2019, journalist Mikk Salu published an article in Eesti Ekspress describing several anti-semitic incidents from Kaalep's past, alleging that he is a Nazi and an anti-Semite.

In high school, Kaalep allegedly directed a play questioning the Holocaust. Between 2009 and 2014, Kaalep was actively involved in the editing of the Estonian section of the anti-Semitic and Nazi online encyclopaedia Metapedia. In 2016, Kaalep posted a photo of himself with US far-right activist Paul Ray Ramsey on his Instagram page, captioning the photo "fashy goyim", which, according to journalist Mikk Salu, means "fascist non-Jews" in neo-Nazi parlance. Kaalep has commented on Salu's allegation: "This is an internet meme, and such an interpretation of the meme rather shows the journalist's incompetence."

Earlier, in 2015, Ruuben Kaalep's manifestations of far-right extremism had been discussed by historian Aro Velmet, who at the time pointed out that Kaalep had posed with the symbol of the War of Independence Victory Column on the EKRE website. Velmet saw in it the insignia of the Estonian volunteer division in the World War II.

Poetry In 2020, Kaalep published his first poetry book, Litoriinamere loits & teisi luuletusi. It includes poems written from his high school time up to his parliamentary work. Kaalep published simultaneously two versions of the book: one using the Latin alphabet, the other in runes. The runic version of his book is the first runic book published in Estonian language since the Middle Ages.

Kaalep's poetry is considered diverse: including doggerel, love poetry, nature meditations and ethnofuturism. According to Karl Martin Sinijärv, Kaalep is able to use his novel imagery and cool substance to create an entirely enjoyable poetic picture out of even old and supposedly boring metre. Rauno Alliksaar, however, has been critical of Kaalep's "dripping and sometimes thinly metaphored patriotism" and Aare Pilv of his "patriotic-militaristic eroticism". Siim Lill, on the other hand, describes Kaalep's poems as "sustained by a thorough self-irony", adding: "The author is aware of the addressees and impact of his words – that his texts irritate even beforehand, that nationalism automatically creates polemics. Thus, for the reader who supports Kaalep's position the texts are amusing, but for the reader who bounces off they become a grain of sand, scratching even when one understands that the words are consciously directed to irritate him."

In 2022, Kaalep won a special prize at Otepää Parish Rhymed Chronicle awards for his poem "Hexameter of Päidla".

Personal life His father was poet, playwright, literary critic and translator Ain Kaalep. From 2012 until 2017 he studied history at the University of Tartu.