Reform Party leads elections in Estonia

Estonian Prime Minister Kai Kallas’ “Reform Party” is leading the country’s general elections. The victory of this party will mean that Tallinn will remain one of the strongest supporters of support for Ukraine in Europe.According to the preliminary results, the far-right EKRE party comes second with 16.1% of the vote (compared to 31.5% for the liberal reformist party Kallas). This reflects growing voter concern over the rising cost of living amid Russia’s war in Ukraine.If the result is confirmed and Kallas, 45, manages to create a functional coalition, this will strengthen the pro-European course of this Baltic state, Russia’s western neighbor of 1.3 million inhabitants. Furthermore, Estonia will maintain a policy of transition to environmentally friendly energy sources and will continue to accept Ukrainian refugees. The Reform Party won the 2019 elections but failed to come to power as three smaller parties formed the government. It collapsed in 2021, allowing Kallas to form a coalition government and take power in the state.
Kallas said that after the election results, his party will have the opportunity to form a coalition government that will back calls for pressure on Russia.”We… have to invest in our security, our aggressive neighbor has not disappeared and will not disappear, we have to work with that,” she told reporters.Throughout the election campaign, Kallas’s rivals from the right-wing EKRE party promised to cut electricity bills if they won the election, opposed the transition to green energy and prevented the admission new refugees from Ukraine.
The EKRE party has also criticized the Kallas government for the scale of arms deliveries to Ukraine, arguing that it has failed to take into account the country’s defense needs.Turnout was 63.7%, with 51% of voters voting online, including Kallas.