Politics

Estonian PM Kaja Kallas’ Reform Party wins general elections

Riga, Mar 6 (EFE).- The Reform Party of Estonia’s incumbent Prime Minister Kaja Kallas won the parliamentary elections with more than 31 percent of the votes, according to preliminary data released Monday.

The result will give Kallas’ party 37 seats, three more than it had in the previous legislature.

The votes secured by the Reform Party in Sunday’s elections were almost double those obtained by the main opposition Conservative People’s Party of Estonia (EKRE).

“It seems that the voter has spoken. From what I gathered from the screen, we did quite well for ourselves,” Kallas said after the results were announced, Estonian public broadcaster ERR reported.

“I want to thank all voters. I thank you for your trust, I thank you for the opportunity to head the government for nearly two years now, and indeed for your votes,” she added.

The incumbent prime minister was the favorite to win the elections dominated by the war in Ukraine and military support for that country, as well as inflation, which in February was the second highest in the eurozone.

Analysts had predicted that the Reform Party would win the elections but would have to form a coalition with the Social Democrats and the conservatives of the Isamaa Party.

A surprise winner at the polls and a possible future coalition partner for Kallas was the liberal Eesti 200, a party created in 2018.

Eesti or Estonia 200 strongly supports Estonia’s membership of NATO and the European Union and also supports same-sex marriages.

The outgoing coalition partners, Isamaa and the Social Democratic Party (SDE), suffered moderate setbacks.

Isamaa won 8.3 percent of the vote and could get 8 seats, a loss of four.

As for the SDE, it obtained 9.4 percent and nine seats, down one from the previous 10, according to the provisional data.

The ultra-conservative EKRE party came second in the elections, with 16 percent of the vote and 17 seats, a loss of two seats in parliament.

In third place was the Estonian Center Party, which had been part of the ruling coalition since the 2019 elections but was ousted by Kallas last year after a crisis in the government and a new coalition formed with Isamaa and the SDE. EFE

jkz-jam/pd

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