Party ratings see no major change over previous week
Reform Party continues as the most popular in Estonia ahead of the Conservative People's Party of Estonia (EKRE) and Center Party, whose support remains at a low level, a recent survey shows.
A recent survey, conducted by pollsters Norstat on behalf of conservative thin-tank the Institute for Social Research (MTÜ Ühiskonnauuringute Instituut), found that Reform Party had the support of 30.4 percent of respondents. EKRE had the support of 24.4 percent and Center Party received support from 17 percent of voting-age adults.
The top three are followed by non-parliamentary Eesti 200 (12.1 percent), the Social Democratic Party (7.5 percent) and Isamaa Party (5.9 percent).
There were no major changes to recent party rating trends, which have noted a significant rise in support for EKRE and a concurrent drop in support for Center.
Political scientist Martin Mölder noted that although there are no major changes in party ratings compared to the previous week, it will still take some time to see trends end.
"A longer perspective still tells us that Reform's support is falling close to their latest election results i.e. below 30 percent and Center's rating is moving somewhat lower than their election result. EKRE's support is likely achieving or has already achieved a new stable high level. Only time will tell where Center's and EKRE's supports will stand," Mölder said.
Mölder said it is notable that EKRE's support among non-Estonian voters has increased to around 15 percent - practically their support among Estonians during the last elections. EKRE's support has also increased among voting-age adults with a higher education, among who the party's support has previously largely been below 10 percent.
"It is somewhat surprising that the support for our second conservative party - Isamaa - has increased to record levels among non-Estonians. While Isamaa's support in that group has previously been practically zero, it is now over 3 percent," Mölder commented.
The coalition partnership (Reform-Center) had the support of 47.4 percent of the respondents, the opposition parties (EKRE-Social Democratic Party-Isamaa) have the support of 37.8 percent.
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Editor: Kristjan Kallaste
