Populist party gains as Estonia faces possible power swap
04 March, 2019
A center-right party that held the prime minister’s office in Estonia for over a decade held a lead in the former Soviet republic’s general election Sunday, while a far-right populist party appeared poised to make big gains despite snubs from traditional power-brokers.
With ballots from 280 of 451 polling places counted, the Reform Party had 32.3 percent of the vote. The party, which supports capitalist economic policies and minimal government involvement, held the premiership in Estonia from 2005-2016
The senior partner in the current coalition government, Prime Minister Juri Ratas’ Center Party, received 18 percent in the preliminary, incomplete count. The Estonian Conservative People’s Party was running third with 17.3 percent.
The rival Reform and Center parties, the two main political groupings since Estonia regained independence amid the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, shared an election goal of keeping EKRE from making inroads.
The anti-immigration, euroskeptic party, led by father and son Mart and Martin Helme, won 8.1 percent of the vote and seven parliament seats in the 2015 election. An 18 percent showing would translate to 12 seats in the 101-seat Riigikogu.
The two leading parties have ruled out forming a coalition with EKRE as a partner, saying populists have no place in the Estonian government. EKRE chairman Mart Helme said he had not given up on the idea.
“Yes, of course we would like to be in the coalition because every party wants to carry out its promises and program,” Helme told The Associated Press at the party’s election party in Tallinn’s Old Town.
Estonia has a population of 1.3 million, and nearly 1 million voters were eligible to elect parliament representatives to four-year terms. Election officials said preliminary figures put Sunday’s turnout at 63.1 percent, slightly lower than in 2015.
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