TALINN, Estonia (AP) — Voters in Estonia elected a new parliament on Sunday with initial results favoring Prime Minister Kaja Kallas’ center-right Reform Party. one of the most outspoken supporters of Ukraine in Europe, won so overwhelmingly that almost all votes were counted.
Kallas faces a challenge from the far-right populist EKRE party, which seeks to limit the Baltic country’s exposure to the Ukraine crisis and blames the current government for Estonia’s high inflation rate.
Nine political parties in all candidates for Estonia’s 101-seat parliament, or Riigikogu. More than 900,000 people were eligible to vote in the general election, and nearly half voted in advance.
With 99% of the votes counted, the Reform Party got 31.4% of the votes, followed by EKRE with 16.1% percentage and the Center Party, traditionally favored by Estonia’s large ethnic-Russian minority, 15%
“This result, which is not final, will give us a strong mandate to put together a good government,” Kallas told his party colleagues and cheering supporters at a hotel in the capital, Tallinn.
“I think that with such a strong order, the (aid to Ukraine) will not change because other parties, except EKRE and maybe Center, chose the same line,” he said.
Preliminary results suggest that six parties have passed the 5% threshold of support needed in parliament, including the new Eesti 200, a liberal center party. The number of voters is 63.7%, according to initial information.
The initial results mean that the Reform Party is in an exceptionally strong position to take a leading role in the formation of Estonia’s next government; its support translated into 37 seats in the legislature. But it will require junior partners to form a coalition with a comfortable governing majority.
Kallas rejected being in a government with EKRE due to ideological differences, and is likely to return to the former coalition partner the Center Party and outgoing coalition partners – the small conservative party Fatherland and the Social Democrats – for a deal.
The new Eesti 200 will probably also be involved in the Reform government’s talks.
National security following the invasion of neighboring Russia in Ukraine and socio-economic issues, especially the rising cost of living, are the main themes of the campaign.
Kallas, 45, becomes prime minister in 2021 and has emerged as one of Europe’s most vocal supporters of Ukraine. during the year-long war. He is seeking a second term, with his standing boosted by his international appeals to impose sanctions on Moscow.
A Baltic country of 1.3 million people bordering Russia to the east, Estonia broke away from the Soviet Union in 1991 and took a clear path to the West, joining NATO. and the European Union.
Kallas’s center-right Reform Party, a key player in Estonian politics since the mid-1990s, held the office of prime minister from 2005-2016 and won it again in 2021.
EKRE party leader Martin Helme, the main challenger to the prime minister, blamed Kallas for the country’s inflation rate of 18.6%, one of the highest in the EU, and accused him of undermining Estonia’s defenses by providing weapons to Ukraine.
“We have never doubted the support for Ukraine. We have never questioned Estonia’s membership in NATO,” said Helme in an interview with The Associated Press. “That’s just crazy talk. But we are very critical of the government because they did not assess the danger to Estonia and to Estonia’s security and defense.
“We have given all our heavy weapons to Ukraine, and the replacement will come within two or three years. Basically, that is an invitation to aggression,” he said.
The outspoken and polarizing EKRE entered the mainstream of Estonian politics in the 2019 elections, when it emerged as the third largest party with almost 18% of the vote. The euroskeptic party was founded by Martin Helme’s father, Mart Helme, and is part of a government led by the Center Party in 2019-21.
Kallas argued that it was in his country’s interest to help Kyiv. The full-scale invasion of Ukraine has fueled fears in Tallinn that a Russian victory will encourage Moscow to shift its attention to other countries it controlled during the Soviet era, including the Baltic states of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania..
He says that Estonia’s defenses remain strong because the United States and other NATO allies supply top-notch weapons such as the HIMARS rocket system to Ukraine and also to Estonia.
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Kostya Manenkov in Tallinn, Estonia contributed to this report.