Reform again emerges as leader in Estonian party rankings

Prime Minister Kaja Kallas (Reform) with the Lithuanian and Latvian prime ministers in Vilnius on Wednesday.
Prime Minister Kaja Kallas (Reform) with the Lithuanian and Latvian prime ministers in Vilnius on Wednesday. Source: Social Media

The Reform Party has managed to rise to the lead again in the rankings of Estonia's political parties, ahead of the Estonian Conservative People's Party (EKRE) and the Center Party, the results of the latest poll taken by Norstat for the Institute for the Study of Societal Issues show.

According to the latest results Reform is supported by 23.1 percent, EKRE by 21.9 percent and the Center Party by 20.3 percent of voting-age citizens.

The Reform Party, which increased its support by 1.2 percentage points over the week, regained the lead in the ratings table that had belonged to EKRE since the end of September. In the last two weeks, the Reform Party's support has risen by 2.4 percentage points.

Support for EKRE did not change significantly during the week, and the gap between the national conservatives and the Reform Party is 1.2 percentage points.

Support for the third-placed Center Party dropped by 1.1 percentage points over the week, and Center now has a gap of 2.8 percentage points with Reform and 1.6 percentage points with EKRE.

The top three are followed by the non-parliamentary Eesti 200 with 15.4 percent, the opposition Social Democratic Party (SDE) with 8.5 percent and the opposition party Isamaa with 8.3 percent. Support for the latter stands at its highest level since  August 2019.

The two parties of the government coalition -- Reform and Center Party -- are supported by altogether 43.4 percent of voters and those of the opposition by 38.7 percent.

Researcher Martin Mölder said the increase in support for the Reform Party for the second week in a row and a continuing downward trend in support for EKRE have brought the Reform Party back to first place in the Norstat ratings with a very narrow lead.

The differences between the ratings of the top three remain very small, with Reform and EKRE separated by a little more than a percentage point, and EKRE and Center by a little more than one and a half percentage points, he said.

"Support for the Center Party, which was very stable in the second half of November, is again showing a downward trend at the moment. The Center Party was able to largely restore its support among Russian voters by the time of the local elections, but now it has started to lose its base in that voter group again," Mölder noted.

Eesti 200's support is also on the rise now, again crossing the 15 percent mark for the first time since February of this year.

"Overall, we can see that, against the backdrop of the decline in support for the Reform Party since March, virtually all other parties in the system have gained support at various times. As the bearer of government responsibility, the prime minister's party has seen its position become weaker vis-a-vis every competitor, including its coalition partner," Mölder added. 

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Editor: Helen Wright

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