Vilja Toomast

Vilja Toomast (born 15 August 1962, Antsla as Vilja Laanaru; 1996–2010 Vilja Savisaar; 2010–2015 Vilja Savisaar-Toomast) is an Estonian politician, a former Member of the European Parliament. She previously belonged to the Estonian Centre Party which she decided to leave on 9 April 2012. In 1992–1995, Vilja Laanaru was a member of Riigikogu, belonging to the Independent Royalist Party of Estonia. In 1997, she joined the Estonian Centre Party and has several times been elected to Riigikogu as well as worked in Tallinn city government. In 2009, she became a Member of the European Parliament after Edgar Savisaar renounced his mandate, so as to remain mayor of Tallinn. She left the Centre Party in 2012, maintaining her position as an MEP, and joined the Estonian Reform Party in June 2013. She ran again at the 2014 European elections, but was not successful. In June 2018, Toomast returned to Riigikogu to replace MP Eerik-Niiles Kross, who had vacated his seat. She has been President of the Estonian Volleyball Federation since 2007 and since November 2008, in the Executive Committee of the Estonian Olympic Committee for the next 4 years.