Estonia: the Reform Party wins the legislative elections with a comfortable lead
Members of the Reform Party and supporters of Prime Minister Kaja Kallas (center), March 5, 2023 in Tallinn, Estonian capital.
© Sergei Grits / AP
Text by: RFI Follow
1 min
According to the first results, the Estonian Reform Party (ERE) led by Prime Minister Kaja Kallas came out on top in the general elections on Sunday 5 March, where the turnout was 63.7%.
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With our regional correspondent,
Marielle Vitureau
The Estonian Reform Party easily won, beating the nationalist conservative People's Party of Estonia (Ekre) by 21 seats, which lost two MPs in Parliament.
A few days before the election, the polls predicted a much more tense fight.
Prime
Minister Kaja Kallas
was able to impose herself by reacting in a firm and determined manner to the Russian aggression in Ukraine.
In this country bordering Russia, war worries and questions of defense and security have dominated.
ERE's slogan was “
Estonia in good hands
”.
The Estonians renewed their confidence in him by giving him more than 30,000 votes, an absolute record.
Eesti 200, or Estonia 200, another liberal party created five years ago, entered parliament with 14 deputies.
He could be the new ally of the Reform Party, which now has an embarrassment of choice to form the new coalition.
Shortly before the election, Parliament agreed to increase
the defense budget
to 3% of gross domestic product (GDP).
It will have to tackle
economic and social issues
.
In 2022, the economy was in recession.
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