Kristina Kallas reconsiders candidacy for Eesti 200 leader

Kristina Kallas, minister of education and research and vice chair of Eesti 200, said that while Eesti 200 members anticipate her to run for the party's leadership again in the fall, she has yet to make that decision for herself.
"I have to think about what is important for me – whether to carry out the reforms as education minister or to leave things undone, to give up in order to lead the party. Family reasons for me are also very important," Kallas told the Delfi portal.
According to Kallas, you won't find any of the old political parties in Estonia, which combine liberalism with right-wing economic policies.
"The Reform Party, being a large people's party, has adopted a more conservative stance in terms of social values. The Estonian political landscape needs Eesti 200. That is what motivates me. If it weren't for Eesti 200, I might not have anyone to vote for [in the next elections]."
Kristina Kallas is one of the co-founders of the Eesti 200, was its chair from 2018–2022, and was expected to lead the party to the state elections.
However, Lauri Hussar defeated Kallas in the election for the chair of Eesti 200 on October 15, 2022. Initially, Hendrik Terras also announced his candidacy, but he announced during the general assembly that he was withdrawing his candidacy and advised his supporters to vote for Hussar. 101 party members voted for Hussar, while Kallas received 94 votes.
In an interview with ERR after his election, Hussar promised that Eesti 200 would win 20 seats in the elections and raise money for the party. In the elections, Eesti 200 won the support of 13.3 percent of the voters, giving them 14 mandates. Following the elections, Eesti 200 secured its place in the government.
After the elections, support for Eesti 200 soon began to decline. In the Kantar Emor survey, support for the party briefly rose to 17 percent immediately after the elections, in April 2023, but by June, support for Eesti 200 had already fallen to 9 percent.
Johanna-Maria Lehtme's scandal also played a role, as she was a leading vote-getter for the Eesti 200 in the elections, but left the Riigikogu on May 19 because of the Slava Ukraini scandal. At the start of the scandal, the leading Eesti 200 politicians defended Lehtme and blamed the media.
In November 2023, support for Estonia 200 was only 6 percent, more than twice as low as in the elections.
On November 6, 2023, just over a year after his election, Hussar announced his intention to step down as party leader in order to focus on his work as speaker of the Riigikogu.
Margus Tsahkna, the current foreign minister, and Arko Okk, a cinematographer, ran for the party's leadership. At the general assembly of the Eesti 200 on November 19, 2023, Tsahkna was elected as the new leader of the party. He was supported by 112 voters and Okk by 14.
However, support for the Eesti 200 has remained at a low 4-6 percent in Kantar Emor polls, even after Tsahkna became leader.
Other polls also suggest that Eesti 200 will not be able to win a mandate in the European Parliament elections. If this is the case, it will be bad news not only for the party, but also for its leader, Tsahkna.
Kristina Kallas criticized Züleyxa Izmailova's ejection from the Eesti 200. Izmailova said that Tsakkna and his close associates were behind her expulsion.
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Editor: Kristina Kersa
Source: Delfi, ERR