Acting

Indrek Tarand

Indrek Tarand (born February 3, 1964) is an Estonian politician and a former Member of the European Parliament (MEP) from Estonia. He was an independent politician, but a member of the European Green Party. Tarand is the eldest son of politician Andres Tarand. His mother Mari Tarand, was a well-known linguist and radio journalist and the elder sister of Juhan Viiding. His younger brother is journalist Kaarel Tarand. His paternal grandfather was Estonian cultural figure, philologist and poet Helmut Tarand. His maternal grandparents were poet, author and literary critic Paul Viiding and translator Linda Viiding. His first cousins include historian Juhan Kreem, musician Jaagup Kreem, and poet Elo Viiding. He studied history at the University of Tartu, as well as the University of Bologna, Italy. As a student during the Soviet occupation, he was expelled in his first year for lighting candles with his fellow Estonian patriots on the grave of Julius Kuperjanov, an Estonian military commander. Tarand was forced to the Soviet military service and after that he finished the university in 1991.