Ratings: SDE, Center and EKRE practically neck-and-neck
The opposition Center Party has seen a slight fall in its rating over the past week, a new survey shows. Junior coalition party SDE has now become the third most popular party.
The poll, conducted by Norstat on behalf of conservative think tank the Institute for Social Research, found essentially support for Center, SDE and the opposition Conservative People's Party of Estonia (EKRE) are currently at par: SDE polled at 13.6 percent (up from 13.4 percent last week), Center at 13 percent (down from 13.7 percent) and EKRE at 12.8 percent (compared with 12.7 percent a week ago).
Isamaa remains the most popular (29 percent according to Norstat and a rise of 0.8 percentage points on the previous week) and is followed by the Reform Party, which maintained the 18.7 percent rating it saw last week.
Isamaa is in opposition, Reform in office with SDE and Eesti 200.
The latter continues to post a low rating, below the 5-percent threshold required to win seats in a given electoral district under Estonia's election system, at 4.2 percent according to Norstat.
Among parties not currently represented at the Riigikogu, Parempoolsed, formed in 2022, polled at 4.7 percent, while the Estonian Nationalists and Conservatives (ERK) picked up 1.4 percent of support. The ERK was formed in the summer around a nucleus of disaffected former EKRE members.
The Estonian Greens (Rohelised) picked up 1.3 percent support, the pro-Kremlin Koos/Vmeste party polled at 0.8 percent.
All other parties had a 0.5 percent combined rating, Norstat says.
Isamaa has been the highest rated party for many months now; Parempoolsed represents competition for votes both for it and for Reform – mainly over economic worldview issues.
The next election is to local government, around a year from now.
Norstat compiles its poll every week and aggregates the results over the preceding four weeks, quizzing 4,000 or more Estonian citizens of voting age, both online and over the phone.
Norstat claims a margin of error in direct proportion to the size of a party by support; so, as the most-supported party, Isamaa's margin of error is +/-1.71, compared with +/-0.76 percent for Eesti 200, the least-supported of the six Riigikogu parties at present.
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Editor: Andrew Whyte, Urmet Kook
