Party ratings: Isamaa sees sharp rise in support

Whereas support for most of Estonia's political parties has not changed significantly between August and September this year, Isamaa's has gone up by more than 50 percent in that time, according to one survey whose results were published Tuesday.
Pollsters Turu-uuringute AS issued the results of their most recent survey, which shows a continued trend for a fall in support for the three coalition parties as a whole – the Reform Party, Eesti 200 and the Social Democrats (SDE) – whereas the three opposition parties, namely the Conservative People's Party of Estonia (EKRE), the Center Party and Isamaa, have seen their support move in the opposite direction.
Whereas in August 44 percent of respondents to Turu-uuringute's survey pledged their support for one of the three coalition parties, the figure was 40 percent in September.
The three opposition parties together meanwhile polled at 52 percent with Turu-uuringute this month, last month the figure was 49 percent.
Isamaa stands out in having seen a substantial rise in support over that time-frame, from 9 percent in August to 14 percent in September.
Turu-uuringute puts this down to the figure of the party's leader, Urmas Reinsalu, who took over the helm in June and has been among the most vocal in calling for Prime Minister Kaja Kallas (Reform) to resign over the recent controversy concerning her husband's business interests.
Reinsalu has also been a leading figure in protesting against a proposed car tax (see cover image).
On the other hand, the recent scandal affecting the prime minister does not seem to have significantly affected Reform's rating, which has not hanged between August and September, and remains at 23 percent, Turu-uuringute says.
The latest Turu-uuringute poll was conducted before Center elected its new leder, Mihhail Kõlvart, so the impact of this change on the party's rating cannot be assessed from these results; again Center's support did not change much between August and September, even seeing a slight rise, from 16 percent to 18 percent in that time period.
EKRE remains the most-supported opposition party and second overall only to Reform; it saw a fall from 24 percent in August, to 20 percent this month, according to the survey – the level of support the party was at in June, in fact.
SDE has also fallen back to its June level of 10 percent, compared with a peak of 13 percent in August, according to Turu-uuringute.
Eesti 200 continues to see a fall in support, though the rate is not as great as before. The party lost 2 percentage points of support between August and September, to 6 percent.
Support for non-parliamentary parties, ie. those not represented at the Riigikogu, which includes Parempoolsed and the Estonian Greens, also saw little change, from 6 percent combined in August, to 7 percent this month.
Turu-uuringute conducted its latest poll August 31 to September 10 and quizzed 891 Estonian citizens of voting age, split evenly between over-the-phone surveys and online.
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Editor: Andrew Whyte, Mait Ots