🇪🇪 Estonia elections & politics megathread: Presidential (Aug./Sep.) & Local (Oct.) elections

[Battista Minola 1616]

Great. Jüri Ratas has always seemed terrible to me. Well, mostly because of his deliberate association with the absolute kooks that are Mart Helme and his son Martin. I vividly remember the incident of his remark to Sanna Marin. And it's far from the worst they've said! Seriously, they're threatening.

I don't expect Kaja Kallas to be someone I exactly agree with, but she definitely deserves to be Head Minister given the polling, and hopefully she is not going to ally with EKRE.

RIP the Social Democrats. Still below 10% in the polls. What a sad state.
Instead I've noticed that Estonia 200 has really soared in the polls. Certainly interesting to see whether and how it will impact the political system if snap elections are called and it enters the Riigikogu. Also apparently its leader is called Kristina Kallas... is she related to Kaja Kallas?

[Battista Minola 1616]

https://news.err.ee/1608072376/q-a-estonia-s-government-has-resigned-what-happens-next

This article is worth reading if this topic interests you, it sums up all.

Thank you! The writing style of the article is pretty engaging.

My favourite coalition would be Reform-Isamaa-SDE, of course, because EKRE doesn't belong in any sane government and Centre deserves to be booted out, but I realize it would be ideologically awkward. Honestly Estonia should probably just go to new elections.

[as an aside, I also found an article about the Kallas' and no, they are not in fact related]

[Battista Minola 1616]

https://news.err.ee/1608072376/q-a-estonia-s-government-has-resigned-what-happens-next

This article is worth reading if this topic interests you, it sums up all.

Thank you! The writing style of the article is pretty engaging.

My favourite coalition would be Reform-Isamaa-SDE, of course, because EKRE doesn't belong in any sane government and Centre deserves to be booted out, but I realize it would be ideologically awkward. Honestly Estonia should probably just go to new elections.

Yeah, I agree. Honestly, I'd root for a Reform-E200-SDE coalition after the elections, Isamaa was as responsible as Center in letting EKRE into the government (although they're less corrupt).

Honestly, I would agree with you. That seems the least bad plausible coalition to come out of new elections. Right now there's also a distinct possibility that Isamaa may not make it to the next Riigikogu, it is polling dangerously close to the 5% threshold.
But we'll see, things could change unexpectedly.

[Battista Minola 1616]

https://www.euronews.com/2021/01/24/estonia-politics-kaja-kallas-to-become-baltic-nation-s-first-female-prime-minister

Apparently Centre and Reform have struck a deal for a Kallas government. Ratas won't be part of the new cabinet but the article says "Local media reported earlier that he could become the parliamentary speaker in March." which is hilariously bad.

[Battista Minola 1616]

Conservative People's Party (EKRE) — far-right nutcases

Too kind of a description here.

[Battista Minola 1616]

In a little bit of update, I would note that EKRE has made sizable gains in the polls since the Ratas cabinet dissolved (together with the Reform Party it seems, while pretty much everyone else has been on some kind of a downward trajectory as of late). Nothing good can come out of this.

[Battista Minola 1616]

I have zero background on what caused this but Centre being kicked out of government is good and should have happened when the Ratas cabinet fell.