Prime Minister Kaja Kallas’s liberal business reform party (portrait on page 4) won the parliamentary elections in Estonia. She won 37 out of 101 mandates, three more than in 2019, in the People’s Assembly (Riigikogu).
Kallas leads a three-party coalition with the Social Democrats and the conservative party Isamaa. Both parties lost seats, but the coalition still has the majority. Kallas initially left open whether it will be continued. A decision on this should be made shortly, she said on Monday after a board meeting of her party.
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person of the day Kaja Kallas: The “Iron Lady” from Estonia
Two opposition parties came in second and third: the right-wing populist party Ekre (17 seats) and the left-wing Center Party (16 seats), but they each lost seats. With 14 seats when they first took office, the liberal party Estonia 200 entered parliament.
One of the dominant issues of the election campaign was Russia’s war against Ukraine. A quarter of the 1.2 million inhabitants are of Russian origin – the war also sparked social debates, such as about school lessons in Russian.
Image: OÖN graphic
