Parempoolsed qualifies for state budget support after election
While Parempoolsed failed to win Riigikogu seats at Sunday's election, the party did pass one other hurdle.
A total of 5 percent of the vote is required to win seats under Estonia's d'Hondt system of proportional representation and, while Parempoolsed, only incorporated as a party last fall, failed to meet this level, it did surpass the 2 percent-mark; significant in that polling at or above this level means the party will get state support.
On the night, Parempoolsed polled at 2.3 percent of the vote.
This funding comes from the state budget and is allocated in proportion to a party's support and representation, but it means smaller parties who did not quite make it to the Riigikogu, still get some funds.
Party leader Lavly Perling said of the result that: "2.3 percent … and these votes, I would venture to say, are quality votes from brave people. They will give us a very strong foundation."
Her party stood out particularly on its economic policies, she added, and said that her party's talk of not over-pledging on funding or of subsidies as the answer to everything, had led other, larger parties to temper their language on these issues, as election day drew closer.
Nonetheless, Perling, a former prosecutor general, said that "fear and intimidation" had won the election this time round.
The party was also one of the few, if not the only party, to state that university funding should not be fully on the state, in the case of a first-time degree.
The Estonian Greens (Rohelised) on the other hand, despite having had Riigikogu seats in the past, did not make the 2 percent level, polling at 1 percent, and so will not qualify for state support.
State funds are reported every quarter; for comparison's sake, Eesti 200, which now has Riigikogu seats but did not last year, took in €100,000 in state support in 2022, compared with €1.73 million for the Reform Party.
Since Eesti 200's support and representation has grown significantly since then, it will qualify for a greater amount of state funding.
Some parties take in more in donations, than they do in state funds, while membership fees and investment yields are also reported quarterly, alongside state support.
Another party, the United Left Party (EÜVK, sometimes just termed as Vasak), also took a surprise level of support Sunday, at 2.4 percent.
At the same time, its ranks included another party, Koos, folded into the one party for these elections, and most of its votes were obtained in Ida-Viru County, rather than nationwide. The party's leading member, Aivo Peterson, had made campaigning videos from occupied eastern Ukraine, while his and his party's success in Ida-Viru County were interpreted in the media to have taken the temperature of the real slant of public opinion in that region, in relation to Russia's invasion of Ukraine.
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Editor: Andrew Whyte