Prime Minister Kaja Kallas' support fell to April levels

Prime Minister Kaja Kallas (Reform) did not lose the lead in a poll of prime ministerial candidates in August, despite the heated arguments about the removal of Soviet monuments, but her popularity has dropped from 32 to 27 percent.
The Estonian daily Eesti Päevaleht (EPL) that commissioned the poll, reported (link in Estonian) that the last time Kallas had such a result was in April.
Jüri Ratas, the Center Party leader, has lost popular support as well with only 19 percent of respondents now favoring him to become prime minister, which is a three-point drop. In the last year, Ratas' support has never fallen below 20 percent; the nearest it came to that was last April with 20 percent of voters favored him as prime minister.
Kristina Kallas, the leader of the Eesti 200 (Estonia 200) party, and Lauri Läänemets, the leader of the Social Democratic Party (SDE), are the only two politicians who have gained in public support. Kallas' support increased by one point from 5 to 6 percent. Similarly modest was Läänemets' popularity growth, which increased from 2 to 3 percent.
Tõnis Stamberg, sociologist and the head of the market research company Turu-uuringute AS, said that the completion of the survey period corresponded with the removal of the Narva tank memorial.
"As only a small number of people responded during those days, the event had no significant impact on the results this time," he said, adding that next month's survey will likely give a far more accurate assessment of the impact of removing Soviet monuments on candidate ratings.
Stamberg said that the percentage of citizens who did not know what to say and thus did not respond has climbed to 28 percent this time. Only 24 percent of June's responders fell into this category.
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Editor: Kristina Kersa