05/03/2019
🇪🇪 ELECTIONS IN ESTONIA 🇪🇪
On Sunday the 3rd of March Kaja Kallas was elected prime minister of Estonia. She is the country’s first female prime minister and the leader of the liberal Reform party (who got 28,8%). They became bigger the current party in government, the Centre Party (who got 23%), and lost the elections. But, they also became bigger than the far-right party EKRE (who got 17,8%). However, voter turnout was only 63%.
Kaja Kallas is a Europhile and a former MEP, who gained popularity amongst the people by promising tax cutts amongst other things. This, and public spending were the main issues focused on in the Eastonian election campaign. Also tensions between the Russian minority and the majority population, as well as the urban population and rural populations, were topics that were addressed in the campaign.
Kallas hopes to govern in coalition with current president Kersti Kaljulaid, the first female head of state. If this is a possibility remains unclear. Further, she has stated that cooperating with the far-right party EKRE is not a possibility. Something that is a possibility is however, a coalition between the Reform party and the Centre party. Kallas has though claimed that her party and the Centre has big differences concerning citizenship, education and taxation. The Social Democratic Party and the Conservative Party will also need to be wooed if the government is to have a majority in parliament.
Source: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/mar/03/estonia-election-centrist-parties-far-right
PS: To clarify the ideological positions of the parties, in the European Parliament the Reform Party and Centre Party are parts of ALDE, the Conservative Party is a part of EPP, the Social Democratic Party is a part of S&D and EKRE is not in the European Parliament for now.
