Estonia’s parliamentary elections on Sunday were won by Prime Minister Kaja Kallas’ centre-right Reform Party, international news agencies report. When almost all votes had been counted just before midnight Dutch time, the party had 31.6 percent of the vote. The right-wing populist EKRE party is in second place with 16 percent of the vote and the moderate left-wing Center Party of former Prime Minister Juri Ratas is in third place with 14.7 percent.
The elections in the member state of both the EU and NATO were overshadowed by the war that Russia is waging against Ukraine. Kallas, 45, who took office as Estonia’s first female prime minister in 2021, is outspokenly pro-Ukraine. She told television station ETV that she had not expected such a strong result.
To stay in power, she and her Reform Party will have to form a coalition with one or more other parties in the 101-seat parliament. If she succeeds, according to Reuters, she will continue her policy of generously welcoming refugees from Ukraine and greening the energy supply.
The DPA news agency reports that more than half of the 966,000 Estonian voters voted online, including Kallas himself.