The liberal opposition party Reformpartiet wins a surprising victory over the ruling centre party in Sunday’s parliamentary elections in Estonia.
Reformpartiet has been 28,8 percent of the vote, which gives the party 34 of the 101 seats in the parliament.
Thus it looks to the opposition to win power over the prime minister Juri Ratas’ centre party, which has received 23,1% of the vote.
And thus can Reformpartiets leader, 41-year-old Kaja Kallas, will be Estonia’s first female prime minister.
Also it nationalkonservative party Ekre has – as expected – had great success at the elections. Ekre, who are EU-skeptic, has more than doubled its electoral success by 17,8 percent of the vote.
The Estonian election campaign has primarily been about taxes, and public expenditures on language training for Estonia’s large Russian minority.
Since Estonia broke away from Russia for almost 30 years ago, has Reformpartiet and the centre party has traditionally fought for power.
Both parties are supporters of the EU and Nato. They therefore also want to keep the EU and indvandringskritiske Ekre from the influence.
About a quarter of Estonian voters are Russian-speaking.
The voices typically on the centre party. Among other things, to keep the school system, which has both Estonian and Russian teaching.
Both Reformpartiet and Ekre will abolish the Russian education.
Although Reformpartiet have received the most votes, it may well be difficult for the party to have formed a government.
the Reason is Ekres great prosperity. Reformpartiets Kaja Kallas has in advance ruled out forming government with Ekre.
however, She is open to pretty much all other options.
– We keep all options open in relation to forming a coalition, she said to the national Estonian media ERR.
