Opposition Maintains Popularity Lead, Smaller Parties Gain Footing
Most parties in Parliament lost popularity in August, while two unrepresented parties inched closer to the parliamentary threshold, a new TNS Emor poll commissioned by ERR has found.
The two opposition parties - Center and the Social Democrats - continued to hold the lead this month with a combined support of 51 percent versus the coalition's 34 percent, reported uudised.err.ee.
The Center Party was on top, garnering support from 26 percent of respondents, and the Social Democrats followed with 25 percent. Since July, popularity fell two points for the Center and one point for the Social Dems.
Meanwhile in the coalition, the Reform Party's popularity was at 20 percent, down four points in a month, and IRL's remained at 14 percent.
Outside the walls of Parliament, the Green Party, which this week was given a formal bankruptcy warning, saw its popularity rise to 5 percent - the vote threshold for securing a place in the legislature. The Conservative People's Party was close, with 4 percent, while the Independence Party had 2 percent.
"This time there was more support among citizens for the smaller parties, which is somewhat of a seemingly momentary alternative to the much-criticized big parties,“ Emor analyst Aivar Voog said.
In August, 41 percent of the people who were polled did not favor any party and were therefore not counted. That figure was down 5 percent from July.
On Saturday, ERR will publish ratings relevant to the upcoming local elections.